November 21, 2007
Pervasive Health Conference in Finland January 30-February 1, 2008
In searching for uses of mobile phones for health, I came across the second annual Pervasive health conference to be held next year in Helsinki. The conference looked so promising that I wanted to spread the word to potential speakers or attendees.
As defined by the organizers “Pervasive healthcare is an emerging research discipline, focusing on the development and application of pervasive and ubiquitous computing technology for healthcare and wellness. … Pervasive healthcare may be defined from two perspectives. First, it is the development and application of pervasive computing (or ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence) technologies for healthcare, health and wellness management. Second, it seeks to make healthcare available to anyone, anytime, and anywhere by removing location, time and other restraints while increasing both the coverage and quality of healthcare.”
Some of the topics that will be discussed are:
· Wearable, ambient and home based health and wellness measurement and monitoring technologies
· Mobile and wireless technologies for healthcare information storage, transmission, processing, and feedback, including devices, systems and applications
· Sensor networks for pervasive healthcare
· Information management, processing and analysis in pervasive healthcare
· Networking support for pervasive healthcare (location tracking, routing, scalable architectures, dependability, and quality of access)
· Citizen portals and electronic citizen-managed health records
Last year’s conference papers are available on: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=4205140&isYear=2006
The official 2008 conference website is: http://www.pervasivehealth.org/
Best of Luck with the Conference!
Adam Tolnay
Posted by Adam at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
Pervasive Health Conference, January 30-February 1, 2008, Tampere, Finland
In searching for conferences on the use of mobile phones for health I came across the second annual Pervasive health conference to be held next year in Helsinki. The conference looked so promising that I wanted to spread the word to potential speakers or attendees.
As defined by the organizers "Pervasive healthcare is an emerging research discipline, focusing on the development and application of pervasive and ubiquitous computing technology for healthcare and wellness... Pervasive healthcare may be defined from two perspectives. First, it is the development and application of pervasive computing (or ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence) technologies for healthcare, health and wellness management. Second, it seeks to make healthcare available to anyone, anytime, and anywhere by removing location, time and other restraints while increasing both the coverage and quality of healthcare."
Some of the topics that will be discussed are:
- Wearable, ambient and home based health and wellness measurement and monitoring technologies
- Mobile and wireless technologies for healthcare information storage, transmission, processing, and feedback, including devices, systems and applications
- Sensor networks for pervasive healthcare
- Information management, processing and analysis in pervasive healthcare
- Networking support for pervasive healthcare (location tracking, routing, scalable architectures, dependability, and quality of access)
- Citizen portals and electronic citizen-managed health records
Last year's conference papers are available here.
The official 2008 conference website is: http://www.pervasivehealth.org/
Paper Submission Deadline is: September 14th, 2007
Best of Luck with the Conference!
---Adam Tolnay
Posted by Dan at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2007
eHealth Broadband
According to the U.S. Internet Industry Association (USIIA) recent report Download file consumers should not be limited to a "one-size fits-all" broadband service for medical operations including transmission of patient records. However, net neutrality advocates do not want network operators like Verizon (USIIA's principal sponsor) to prioritize consumer communications over others depending on health care provider contracts. How this will effect emerging medical technology remains in debate.
Related Article:
Report: Net neutrality could kill 'eHealth' plans
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9759570-7.html
Posted by Enrique at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Health & Mobile Phones - Vodaphone's overview in 48 pages
Ken Banks sent me a link to Vodaphone's recent report on mobile phones and health care.
http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_searchdetails.php?id=352
I've posted a snapshop of the contents below.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 10:27 AM
August 09, 2007
iplato Public Health Information via SMS
After successfully launching an innovative population-wide SMS based mobile healthcare services information system to cover 165,000 patients in the Hammersmith & Fulham district of London, iPlato has gone national in the UK!
In the words of Medical News Today, a respected UK medical blog, "Mobile healthcare specialist iPLATO has developed a new text messaging service which provides Britons travelling abroad with free travel health information regarding malaria. The service, funded by GlaxoSmithKline Travel Health as part of the Malaria Awareness Campaign, allows travellers to text in the name of their destination country to receive relevant information about the malaria prevalence in that country.
Despite the fact that malaria is a preventable disease every year approximately 2,000 British travelers return home with malaria, making the UK one of the biggest importers of malaria among industrialised countries. Travelers using the service are charged their standard operator rates and the service is available over all networks.
Malaria is a risk for British travelers as people increasingly visit countries where malaria is common; there has been a 150% increase in travel to malarious destinations amongst British travelers in the last 10 years"
The question now is to how to entice travelers to seek Malaria information before getting on the plane. Perhaps a bit of creative thinking along the lines of persuasion may be in order!
iPLATO is truly innovative, and through their iPLATO Patient Care Messaging service they cover 165,000 patients will be able to interact with their doctors on diverse health related subjects such as appointments, periodic reviews, smoking status, immunization and invitations to specialist clinics directly via mobile text messaging.
For more information in iPLATO and their work, see: http://www.iplato.net/
ps- A final question: When are we going to see such applications in the United States?
Posted by Adam at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
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 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
Uncle Sam and Mobile Phone Industry Players Team Up for Health in the Developing World
A potentially amazing public-private partnership is being forged between the US Government and several mobile phone industry playes that may set the standard for utilizing mobile devices for in-the-field health data collection in the developing world.
According to a summary of the initiative available on: http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds2007/experiences-4208.html
"The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan/PEPFAR) is working along with the several mobile phone industry companies and other private-sector partners to leverage technology to connect health systems in PEPFAR-supported countries. The programme provides health workers in the field with a Motorola-made phone that is equipped with an application that lets them enter health data on patients. That information is then sent by way of general packet radio services (GPRS) to a central database. (If a GPRS network is not available, it can be sent via SMS.) The data is analysed and mapped by the system and then made available to health officials through a real-time internet database. PEPFAR will provide initial support for system roll-out in Rwanda and Nigeria in 2007, with a plan to eventually extend the partnership to at least 8 additional countries on this continent and then expand into Asia as well. While initially focused on HIV/AIDS, the goal is to use the system to address infectious diseases like tuberculosis and malaria."
A graphic of how PEPFAR works is available on:
Download file
This is a partnership to watch for the procedures that come into place may well create a replicable model that could be rolled out in much of the developing world for a number of different applications.
A similar initiative led by a technologist husband and epidemiologist wife and incubated at Stanford University is in alpha testing in India. For a description, see: http://rdvp.org/fellows/2006-2007/shashank-garg/
Surely many other initiatives that utilize mobiles for health data collection in the developing world. I would like to showcase other initiatives and as such kindly request readers of this blog to share with me any examples they care to share.
Posted by Adam at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2007
SMS for Public Health in Developing Countries
A timely report by the Voice of America reminds us that mobile phones are connecting the developing world with 1 million new phones added to networks in less developed countries each day. As the network grows so new uses arise. Voxiva: http://voxiva.com a company based in Washington DC has been offering technical solutions --many based on SMS technology-- for innovative use of mobile phones for public health.
Voxiva's SMS based flagship application, HealthNet (known locally as TRACnet: http://voxiva.com/news/050307.asp winner of the TIGA Prize for Health) has been implemented in Rwanda. HealthNet is an information management solution that allows governments, international organizations and NGOs, to collect data collection from field workers and health care staff in real time and supports structured two way communication to facilitate feedback and supervision. HealthNet uses SMS to support program monitoring, drug and critical supply tracking, supervision and training of staff, and lab reporting.
Other Voxiva applications are in use in Peru, Indonesia, and the provinces of Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India.
The Voice of America podcast (3:30 minutes) is available on:
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/player?s=c16a13a04de7fa8f4e68b19278c080b3&e=660
VOXIVA's website is: http://voxiva.com
Posted by Adam at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Department of Homeland Security Wants Cell Phones to Detect Radioactive Material
http://www.careandhealth.com/pages/story.aspx?storyID=3ff8dddb-c570-43f5-b4e9-746d206f5ca0
The Department of Homeland Security is looking to cell phone users to track biological, chemical, and radioactive material. Such a program could allow all of the members of a community to take an active role in the health of that community, and I believe that this factor would be very motivating in getting users to participate in such a program.
-- Rolf Steier
Posted by Rolf at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2007
7 Categories of Mobile Texting for Health
Last week our lab members looked at how texting on mobile phones can be used to promote health. As it turns out, we decided that all the examples we found fit into seven categories.
1. Remind you to do health behavior
2. Collect data from you
3. Offer you words of inspiration
4. Keep you on schedule/routine
5. Alert you to health issue or crisis
6. Send you lab results
7. Give you health info on demand
Our next step is exploring texting for health in other countries and languages. If you know of some examples that don't fit into the categories above, let us know.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)