Posted on behalf of Hannah Waters
Although most people might use their phones to play Angry Birds or Farmville, cell phones are actually finding more useful applications in the healthcare space. As we featured in our video last year, a growing number of medical-related apps for smart phones and tablets are now allowing doctors in the US and Europe to provide better point-of-care service. But with more than 2 billion phones ringing and beeping in the developing world, the technology is promising to revolutionize healthcare in less prosperous countries, too.
Whether providing ways for people to keep track of their medical information, send ultrasound photos to obstetricians for off-site analysis or taking vital stats on-the-go, there’s “a lot of innovation that’s coming in the mobile technology industry,” said Gavin Krugel, head of global health at the Global System Mobile Association, a London-based advocacy organization for mobile service operators, at a press conference earlier today.
The press conference was held as a curtain-raiser for the Mobile Health Summit, a four-day industry meeting to be held next week in Cape Town, South Africa, where medical and technology experts will gather to discuss ways of sharing health information and diagnosing disease through mobile applications and text messaging services. For example, Adele Waugaman, a communications specialist who heads a partnership between the United Nations Foundation and Vodaphone, will release results at the summit of the first comprehensive global survey of mobile phone use on a country-by-country level. This survey provides a “benchmark against which governments and other groups can measure progress,” she said at the press briefing.
However, the rag-tag crew of doctors, cell phone industry folks and political science wonks attending the Cape Town summit isn’t alone in recognizing the medical potential in cell phones and other mobile devices. Last week, the X PRIZE Foundation — the organization behind such public competitions as the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, which aims to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days at less than $10,000 per genome — announced its latest grand challenge: a $10 million prize to whomever develops a mobile device that diagnoses patients as well as a physician can.
Aptly named the Tricorder after Star Trek’s scanning and medical device, the final specifications for the device are still being worked out, but presumably it should be portable, cheap, minimally invasive and accurate. Beam up my ultrasound pictures, Scotty!
Image: William Hook, Flickr Creative Commons