Posted: 11/08/11 by Mobile Future Team
As CIO reported, a new iPad app seeks to help doctors better communicate with patients regarding cardiovascular issues. CardioTeach replaces the traditional diagrams, posters, and models that doctors use to explain heart illness and treatment options to patients. The app also lets users draw and add images so patients can enhance their understanding of the heart.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 09/16/10 by Mobile Future Team
It’s no secret that new technologies—including those advanced in the wireless marketplace—are making the world a smaller seem smaller by the day. As Ellen Page shows us in Cisco’s ad campaigns, a quick “field trip” to China or a consultation with a doctor travelling internationally can happen these days with relative ease. But connectivity does not always yield itself to communication, especially when taking language barriers into consideration.
Well fear not, les communicateurs! Mashable conveniently has profiled 15 mobile translation apps that can assist the international telecommuter and traveler alike and make each a little more confident when conversing across languages and lands. And while these apps may not quite make you fluent upon download, they can promise whether you are conversing from the comfort of your couch or the clamor of the Champs-Élysées, you will always feel a little more chez soi.
Posted: 04/01/10 by Mobile Future Team
At CTIA Wireless 2010 last week, the newest and coolest mobile products and services were on display. There were lots of interesting ones, including many amazing mHealth applications.
Here’s a look at some innovative apps:
A mobile application that helps consumers better manage their medication.
An application that helps the visually impaired recognize objects.
A mobile outpatient monitoring solution that proactively alerts doctors and nurses to potential health problems.
Posted: 02/18/10 by Allison Remsen
In a recent CNET article, Lance Whitney explores the exponential growth of wireless on a global level. With the ITU predicting that wireless subscriptions will reach 5 billion in 2010 (or 74 percent of the world’s population), it’s pretty clear mobile devices have become ubiquitous in today’s society. And the applications offered by mobile technology are in great demand.
This week at the Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Toure discussed the growing role that mobile plays in providing Internet access:
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services and I am confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in particular in 2010, with many more people using their phones to access the Internet."
This increase in mobile connectivity can have positive implications for people around the globe.
"Even the simplest, low-end mobile phone can do so much to improve health care in the developing world," said Toure. "Good examples include sending reminder messages to patients' phones when they have a medical appointment, or need a prenatal check-up. Or using SMS messages to deliver instructions on when and how to take complex medication such as anti-retrovirals or vaccines. It's such a simple thing to do, and yet it saves millions of dollars--and can help improve and even save the lives of millions of people."
Posted: 12/14/09 by Mobile Future Team
With the exception of reducing the Digital Divide, probably the greatest social benefit from wireless technology is its potential to improve access to more affordable healthcare. We've blogged a lot about this (see here, here and here) and now thanks to Venuri Siriwardane at the Newark Star-Ledger, there's even more evidence.
As an example, Siriwardane cites fuzzy bedroom slippers with pressure sensors in the soles which wirelessly transmit movement data, including information that the wearer may be more likely to fall.
Of greater potential benefit, researchers are pouring research funding into the development of cost-effective wireless audio and video consultation services so doctors may interact remotely with patients in real time.
The reason for this is not hard to discern:
Remote patient monitoring alone can generate between 20 percent to 40 percent in savings, said Chris Wasden, managing director of health industries strategy and innovation at PricewaterhouseCoopers.... Wasden [explained] that telehealth is much more common in developing countries such as India, where cell phones enable people to receive health care in remote areas that once lacked access to modern medicine. "They've already developed the ability to deliver mobile health care to their people, but we're behind the times on that."
Better healthcare. More affordable access. That's the mobile future.
Posted: 12/04/09 by Mobile Future Team
As Washington focuses on healthcare legislation, here's a sobering statement from Dr. Pauline Chen, author of the New York Times' "Doctor & Patient" column:
"Nonadherence, or the failure to follow medical advice, is the most important cause of organ rejection in long-term transplant survivors."
Teenagers are at especially high risk, she writes this week, citing studies suggesting that a majority of teen liver transplants fail and that teen patients are four times more likely than adults to take their medications at the wrong time or to forget to take them.
So how to reach today's hard-to-reach teens? Last month, researchers at researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York published a study showing the remarkable effectiveness of texting in improving success rates among young liver transplant patients.
During a year-long test, patients receiving texts were more likely to take their medications. One result: while 12 of the young people experienced rejection episodes in the previous year, only two did so during the study.
The next time a text message appears on your phone, it may be your doc giving you an important reminder.
Posted: 11/13/09 by Mobile Future Team
Do you hate the cold stethoscope pressed against your back as your doctor asks for a good deep cough? Well, those days may soon be over thanks to our phones.
A recent article on Discovery News offers exciting insight into new applications for our phones, which can analyze the sound of coughs and allow doctors to make initial diagnoses.
New research by American and Australian scientists aims to diagnose cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases by analyzing coughs with software. The research could save patients across the world a trip to the doctor's office. Instead, they could simply cough into their cell phone and receive a diagnosis a few seconds later.
The implications for such research might not only save us a trip to the doctor's office, but could also help reduce the spread of contagious diseases and help employers keep sick workers at home, as a recent post on Internet Evolution points out.
If the software commercially existed now, it could go far in preventing the spread of H1N1 flu, as infected people would no longer congregate in doctors' offices, nor could they stay at work while sick. An employer could simply require any staff member to cough into her phone to check to see if the illness is contagious. Or an employer could require employees to cough into their phones before reporting in to work.
There are still a number of issues to be worked out: how to sterilize our phones after coughing into them, or how doctors will account for the factors like age, sex and weight that influence coughs. Still, the possibility of bringing the point of diagnosis from the doctor's office to any place we can take our phones must not be overlooked.
Our nation has been consumed over the last few months with the need to improve healthcare while reducing healthcare costs. Here's a chance for our phones to help do both.
Posted: 11/02/09 by Allison Remsen
"We're in the adolescence of the mobile and wireless revolution," said White House policy expert Tom Kalil, as he began his discussion of wireless issues and federal policy at today's Mobile Future luncheon in Washington.
Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy in the Office of Science and Technology, said the Obama Administration understood and respected the immense economic and social benefits of a burgeoning wireless industry. "We want to create the right policy environment for private sector investment," he said, adding that "[Wireless] innovation is a powerful tool to address the broad range of challenges we face."
As an example, he cited mobile healthcare - "a really promising area." He also cited the power of wireless in connection with other advances such as nanotechnology, which will soon put the entire contents of the Library of Congress on a device the size of a sugar cube.
At a subsequent panel discussion, Debbie Goldman, an economist with the Communications Workers of America, discussed the linkage between wireless investment and union jobs. "There are 45,000 union workers in the wireless industry," she said. "Telecom networks are good employment opportunities that offer good career jobs for [union workers]."
Also on the panel was Citi Investment Research analyst Michael Rollins, who discussed the relationship between industry investment and government regulation. "In the telecom industry, you deal with long-life assets," he said. That makes changes in regulation a cause for great concern.
Also presenting at the luncheon were economists Robert Hahn and Hal Singer, who discussed the economic implications of exclusive mobile handset contracts between manufacturers and wireless carriers. To access their paper, please click here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1477042
Posted: 09/26/08 by Molly Kocour
Telecom TV ran an interesting piece this week on mobile phones in Rwanda. The country is home to approximately 10 million people, and of those citizens, more than 300,000 are infected with HIV or AIDS. While Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, 78 percent of the population lives in rural areas and mountainous regions, which makes treating disease a difficult prospect. In order to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, healthcare providers must be able to circulate accurate information about prevention and treatment options.To improve communications, the Rwandan government has found a new solution to connect providers with patients. TRACnet is a web-based software tool that also utilizes cell phones to connect hospitals and clinics. Healthcare providers can use TRACnet to connect with each other, to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS to patients, and update the government so that it can respond with adequate support and supplies. The data can be sent over the Internet or over mobile phones, and it employs a two-way system that allows individuals to send out info and messages as well as access information like lab results.
Using mobile phones to relay data is a valuable component of the service. In a country where the GDP is only $263.50 per person, cell phones provide a more affordable and accessible option than the Internet.
Ultimately, the numbers speak for themselves - three years ago, twelve centers were treating 1000 patients, now there are over 40,000 individuals in treatment using lifesaving wireless technologies. To learn more, check out the piece below or at Telecom TV.
Posted: 06/05/08 by Diane Smith
Building on Jonathan Spalter's blog from a few weeks ago, I would also like to discuss the application of cell phones to the dilemmas faced in rural medicine. When my family moved from Washington, D.C. to Montana, I realized that there was a lot more than just real estate to consider when moving from a busy metropolis to quieter community. When you live in large city, your healthcare options are numerous from different hospitals to alternative medicine and cutting edge technology. In many rural areas, it's not that easy.
However, advancements in cellular and medical technology and the expansion of network coverage have resulted in healthcare breakthroughs in rural areas that are applicable in the U.S. and abroad. Recent achievements include:
To learn more about these research efforts, you can read about them in this article from the San Jose Mercury news.
Additional medical applications of cellular technology are utilizing the text message feature on cell phones. With over 250 million wireless subscribers in the United States, many of whom take one or more prescription drugs, some companies have created applications that allow you to look up your prescription drug information and sends text reminders for when you are supposed to take your pills. These applications are particularly useful for avoiding negative drug interactions. For those of us who are extremely busy and/or forgetful, it's great for keeping track of dosages and following the prescribed schedule set by your doctor.
With all the advancements in medical and cellular technology, there are sure to be many more healthcare breakthroughs in the future, and this can only mean good things for rural healthcare in the U.S. and abroad.
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Tags: Consumer Awareness, Consumer Benefits, eHealth, Innovation, News, Telehealth, Wireless Devices, Wireless Innovation