Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
well as point-of-care support tools. Key
challenges in the deployment of health in-
formation systems include clinician resis-
tance, cost, inadequate infrastructure, staff
workload, under-staffing, power shortages,
and network breakdowns.
in the deployment of these technologies. On the
other hand, the developed world can gauge the ef-
fectiveness of their deployed technologies in these
settings by getting real-world feedback, and also
gain better access to data and patients that could
help them continually improve their technology
for a more global reach. Testing technologies in
a less than ideal setting can help in drastically
improving the technologies for a wider audience.
This relationship is shown in Figure 3.
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Disease prevention and health promotion
using mobile technology includes ap-
proaches such as telephone counseling,
email or SMS reminders, hotlines, pro-
viding access to educational resources,
and efforts to increase physical activities.
Common barriers in this area include the
limitations of SMS (maximum of 160
characters for messages), time limits for
voice calls, translation of messages from
one language to another, limited technical
and mobile phone provider support, and
security/privacy concerns.
CASE STUDIES OF HEALTH
CHALLENGES
In this section, we survey existing approaches
in information technology (IT) that focus on
providing and assisting health care. While the IT
infrastructure even in the developed world still
leaves a lot to be desired, the IT infrastructure
in the developing world is often very poor and
major hurdles still need to be crossed to provide
the required scale and reliability.
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Use of mobile technologies in emergen-
cies is very scarce in developing countries,
but has the potential to increase access
to emergency care or support for disaster
management and recovery. However, the
main barrier to the development of a com-
prehensive emergency response system is
the significant capital investment (medi-
cal vehicles, information technology)
required.
Health Databases
Centralized health databases are very important
in understanding the causes of an illness and in
analyzing trends that can be used to ease suffering
from information learned about an individual, dis-
ease, or specific population. It is very important to
ensure that developing countries are not left out in
the database design decisions of centralized health
databases (WHO, 2000) occurring in the developed
world. Many private firms and organizations are
helping governments in designing and maintaining
such databases in the developed world. A good
example of this is happening in Iceland, where the
government awarded deCODE genetics a license
to maintain the genealogical database of the entire
population. It becomes very important that the
skills and expertise gained through such projects
can be used to aid developing countries in similar
projects in the future. In developing countries,
It is important to also realize that developed
and developing countries can benefit mutually
from each other in realizing Mobile Health sys-
tems. Developed countries have an abundance of
resources to study and implement Mobile Health
systems. Research is performed both academically
and at an industrial level in developed countries
to strategize, design, and implement Mobile
Health systems. Such projects are often funded
through government institutions and various sub-
organizations. The developing world can make
use of technologies developed in this way (saving
themselves considerable effort in the research and
development phases) and expend resources only
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