Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
OPPORTUNITIES IN
MOBILE HEALTH CARE
of medical records, access to them, and access to
health information databases. They need to revise
information release authorization procedures and
inform patients regarding their health information
usage. Legal compliance has to be sought from the
billing applications to the network security when
transferring this information. There is more than
likely going to be an opposition to any legislation
trying to enforce these rules. A possible solution
would be to involve just a few health care pro-
viders initially before explosive growth can be
experienced warranting legislation.
Case Study I: EpiSurveyor
DataDyne is a non-profit that focuses on informa-
tion and communication technologies for public
health. One of its tools, a free software package
called EpiSurveyor (http://www.episurveyor.org,
2010) can be used to quickly design and deploy
health surveys based on handheld mobile phones.
The goal is to allow health workers to become
fully self-sufficient in the programming, design-
ing, and deploying such surveys, eliminating the
need for costly outside consultants and manual
data entry. It provides support for the surveillance
of diseases to evaluating treatments to monitoring
the success of treatments in preventing outbreaks
and improving health.
The primary goal of EpiSurveyor is to tackle a
key challenge of Mobile Health in the developing
world, i.e., the lack of data necessary to understand
the health of the population, to identify the need
for required programs, to identify the key health
issues, and to develop effective intervention pro-
grams. The majority of health data is still collected
on paper, which is time-consuming and error-
prone. EpiSurveyor addresses the main obstacle
to efficient and effective data collection, i.e., the
lack of appropriate software to put questionnaires
onto handheld devices that also provide simple
data transfer capabilities to desktop computers
(without the need for technical expertise or pro-
gramming skills).
Using this technology it is now possible for
developing countries to collect their own national-
level health statistics. Currently, DataDyne works
with the World Health Organization and partici-
pating ministries of health, the United Nations
Foundation, and Vodafone Foundation Technology
Partnership in training and equipping health care
Other Challenges
In (Cheng et al., 2010), the authors identify barriers
to the acceptance of mobile devices for record-
ing of sensitive personal data in a low-resource
country (specifically Angola in Southern Africa).
Angolans were given PDAs and discussed whether
they had any concerns with disclosing HIV/AIDS-
related sexual risk behaviors to interviewers using
a PDA. A majority of the participants were very
reluctant to use the PDAs and opposed to the idea
of discussion on the disease.
Past historical events in developing countries
also form suspicious perceptions about “outsid-
ers” and technological innovation originating
from them. Angola is recovering from a 27-year
civil war, and a consequence is that there is a
commonly held belief that foreign intervention
is the reason that the war continued for so long.
Countries with such beliefs will not be willing to
adopt new Mobile Health initiatives, since they
are based on so called “western” technology. A
proof of concept is needed to make the benefits
clear to local inhabitants and to ensure them that
such solutions will only prove to be an advantage
to them.
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