The use of SMS texting to relay medical information is becoming more prominant in developing countries. An interesting new organization which I found today is called FrontlineSMS:Medic. The organization has built a network around SMS technology which is specfically targeted for developing countries.
For around USD $500.00 a laptop is placed in a central clinic and a number of cell phones are distributed to healthcare workers in the community. The network has been built using a free, open source software package which allows workers to communicate back to the central clinic where supplies, tests, drugs, etc. can be ordered.
This organization again goes to show that technology which is commonplace can be used in a variety of innovative ways to help people across the world.
Microscopes is a basic diagnostic tool which many hospitals in developing countries go without. Cellscope is a solution to which is accomplished through the exploitation of cell phones (noticing a trend?). The cellscope was developed by a team at Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC-Berkley.
By attaching approximately $75 worth of parts traditional cellular cameras can be have 5-50x zoom. This allows the abillity to have a clinical quality microscope for little overhead. The group is in prelimary stages, but they have however been able to obtain clinical quality images through this method. Also once collected images can be transmitted using the cellular technology to remote locations where clinicans can further analyze the data.
The Moca team at MIT has seemed to come up with an interesting application of telemedicine using the Google Android software platform. The Moca team was able to use the Google Android API to develop an application which allows medical practitioners to communicate to a central server through their mobile device. In the field, trained users collect data such as qualitative measurements, images, and voice descriptions. Once the data has been transferred users can:
1) Request a trained physican look at the data and make a decision.
2) Store the data in an OpenMRS database
This type of integration is the technology that is going to take medical care to the next level. I’ve been trying to find the open-source software platform, but I have not had any luck thus far. Hopefully more to come later.
In one of the coolest applications I have seen so far, researchers at the University of Washington-St. Louis have developed a USB compatible ultrasound probe which is able to connect to Windows mobile smartphones. The probe which seens to be on the order of $500 – $2,000 have the ability to connect to a PC or smartphone. Even more exciting is the fact that Professor Richard have made the probe available and are in the process of creating an open-source development package.
These are exactly the potential applications which have the potential to change the medical imaging landscape. I feel ultrasound is the tool of the future. Small, portable scanners will be the used by specialists to general practitioners EVERYWHERE. Therefore this technology has the potential to impact healthcare across the globe as the cost of ultrasound technology decreases.
See the official press release here.