How Mobile Phones Can Transform Healthcare

推薦者:

楊適旭  院長

台電聯合診所

看到周圍的所有人的生活進入到雲端時代，醫療產業更是隨著無線通訊科技的進步不斷進化中。我們現在已經在台大醫院與台北榮總看到病房的護士推著一台台帶著無線通訊科技的護理車來進行護理照護工作，而照護工作得以和醫院的HIS系統連線後可以幫助大幅減少錯誤發生的機率。

更加精采的當然還是雲端運算，最近幫很多診所同事配置了iPhone 4 32G，目的是讓大家更熟悉智慧型手機如何改變你我的生活。

但為了讓我們明白妳的那一隻智慧手機未來和妳的健康有甚麼關聯，能幫妳做甚麼? 大家不妨看看院長推薦的這篇文章。

How Mobile Phones Can Transform Healthcare

9:56 AM Tuesday March 8, 2011
by David Aylward  | Comments ( 9)

Editor's note: This post is part of a three-week series examining innovation in health care, published in partnership with the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.

The mobile phone is a strong contender as a key transforming agent in the future of health and healthcare. There are now more than 5.3 billion cell phone users around the globe, and 90 percent of the world's population is covered by a commercial wireless signal. We now have a pathway to reach the unreached, and to deliver health services where people are, not merely in health facilities.

In a world with severe healthcare resource constraints, mobile digital technology can be a major "force multiplier." It can empower both patients and practitioners by providing them with the information they need to make informed decisions about health issues from healthy living habits, to health care provision, and monitoring of diseases. The rapid expansion of wireless networks represents a particularly exciting opportunity to reach those who are currently isolated by distance and lack of communication, using "mHealth" (mobile health) programs.

In this respect, health care is no different from other economic sectors that have gained enormous efficiencies and improved outcomes through the use of modern information and communications technologies (ICT). With its ability to reach much further into developing countries than any other technology, wireless is today powering the collection of health data, supporting diagnosis and treatment, and advancing education and research in even the most remote and resource-poor environments — with the potential to do far more.

There are a number of challenges to taking full advantage of this opportunity. One is figuring out the proper mix of public and private involvement.

We don't understand the business models that will support real public private partnerships in the deployment and sustainability of mHealth systems. I just spent a week in Barcelona at the annual gathering of the wireless industry. We want to harness the same drive for health that has been delivering profitable wireless service in the remotest and poorest parts of the world. The interest level is very high, but so far most private sector support for mHealth is still limited to charity. It is not yet clear how the industry will make money on it.

mHealth business models have emerged where there is one buyer for a solution to a specific problem. For example, Sproxil has found pharmaceutical buyers for its anti-drug counterfeiting service. Sproxil allows individuals to easily determine if a drug is legitimate with a single SMS message of a scratched-off number. Ensuring brand protection for the pharmaceutical company creates a business.

However, the real power of mHealth is in supporting integrated health systems involving multiple public and private parties offering diverse services and products. For these multi-problem, multi-actor systems, we have not yet developed clear value chains, much less business models.

Once we start to do that, and we create larger scale implementations, we will be able to see how far private market incentives will go in addressing the enormous needs, especially in the developing world.

We think that offering an array of health services via wireless will generally drive up sales and usage. We think it will drive the sale of more sophisticated handsets and networks. But that "array" has yet to be offered, much less measured.

More narrowly, will offering smart phones to front line health workers pay for itself in increased sales to others? Will hosting an electronic health record and package of health applications for maternal and newborn care justify itself in higher female subscriptions? Will lower data rates for health workers be justified by sparking higher overall demand?

These are all colorable propositions. They need to be tested at scale.

From its earliest days, the US wireless industry offered emergency 9-1-1 calls for free. Years ago I bought cell service for my daughters so they would be safer. I don't think they ever called 9-1-1, but the offer contributed substantially to the growth of the US wireless industry. That industry has a similar opportunity with mHealth, especially in emerging markets.

The industry cannot deliver mHealth on its own, and the private market is not going to solve all health issues by any means. But understanding how much the industry can and will do in its own interests is an important part of the puzzle.

David Aylward is the first Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance — a partnership recently formed by the UN Foundation, The Vodafone Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation.