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July 20, 2007
TeleDoc in India Tele-Health Care in Pakistan
Mobile phones are being used by health care workers to tele-diagnose health problems in rural areas of the developing world. I would like to highlight one initiative in India and one in Pakistan here. I would also welcome examples of similar initiatives that we can publicize on this blog. Please feel free to send them to me.
TeleDoc in India as noted on: http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds12004/experiences-469.html
"provides handheld mobile phone devices to village health workers in India, permitting them to communicate with doctors who use a web application to help diagnose and prescribe for patients. The process of creating TeleDoc began in 2001, when the India-based Jiva worked closely with community heads of villages in Haryana to identify healthcare priorities and test appropriate health solutions. The result is a system that uses Java-enabled mobile telephones to provide village-based healthcare workers with real-time ability to record and transmit diagnostic information. Custom database applications, which synchronise with record-management systems at Jiva's clinic, enable doctors to analyse the data and then prescribe medication and treatment. Medicines are compounded at a regional office, picked up by field workers, and delivered to patients in their homes - a network of pharmacies and delivery people supports this process. The approximate cost of the entire TeleDoc process is 70 rupees (US$1.50) per consultation."
In neighboring Pakistan, Atif Mumtaz has started a similar initiative under the name of Tele-Health Care. His project, incubated at Stanford University, seeks to provide tele medicine focused at first on skin-diseases in remote villages in Northern Pakistan.
Tele-Health Care's impressive initiative may be viewed on: http://tele-healthcare.org/ and Atif's blog chronicling his journey may be read on: http://blogs.tele-healthcare.org/
Posted by Adam at July 20, 2007 10:55 AM