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practice supported by mobile devices, tant tool for enhancing doctor-patient ing markets where more than 100,000
such as mobile phones, patient moni- communication. The mobile technol- new connections are being sold every
toring devices, personal digital assis- ogy is increasingly enhancing day, moreover, Government of India
tants (PDAs), and other wireless de- functionalities of handheld devices, has made compulsory for connectivity
vices. smart phones and PDAs, which are providers to setup towers in rural ar-
potentially replacing the use of PC eas.
mHealth (also written as m-health) is based alternatives while supporting
an abbreviation for mobile health, a mobility needs of patients and medical The advantages of mobile phone in this
term used for the practice of medicine practitioners. context are that it can not only per-
and public health supported by mobile form almost all basic functions of a PC,
devices. With these advantages it is increasingly in addition it is rugged, easy to charge
becoming possible to create innovative (e.g. 3 hours of charging lasts for day
mHealth involves the use and capitali- applications for developing countries which is useful in limited power supply
zation on a mobile phone's core utility that can shift the paradigm of deliver- conditions) and it circumvents require-
of voice and short messaging service ing services and resolve problems ments of broadband connectivity as
(SMS) as well as more complex plaguing the healthcare systems. GPRS has become ubiquitous.
functionalities and applications includ- Healthcare applications of mobile
ing general packet radio service phones are steadily gaining popularity Surprisingly, literacy does not seem to
(GPRS), third and fourth generation over last few years. Private sector has be a barrier in use of mobile phones.
mobile telecommunications (3G and already been predominant healthcare Even semiliterate people in villages are
4G systems), global positioning system provider, especially in rural India cov- now becoming expert mobile users
(GPS), and Bluetooth technology. ering more than 75% share of services and innovations have diffused into m-
provided in some areas. commerce, m-health, m-learning and
Mobile health's core objective is to m-governance projects across the de-
bring access dramatically to health The Government of India has veloping world.
services through mobile phones and proactively been promoting
advance health care quality in poorer telemedicine and use of ICT. In last The review of literature observes that
countries. mHealth provides a person- few years many models of healthcare user friendliness and low start up cost
alized medicine and health by making delivery using -Telemedicine, kiosks make m-health an interesting option in
almost every health service available and mobile vans supported by satellite developing world and if we can cus-
through mobile phones right from connectivity have evolved, where pub- tomize the application to fit into the
telemedicine to basic health services lic private partnership plays a domi- complexities of local healthcare deliv-
such as getting an SMS on information nant role. Some pilot projects have suc- ery networks and work out appropri-
and awareness about diabetes. cessfully demonstrated that ICT can fa- ate financial models would be boon in
Healthcare can be obtained in mobile cilitate basic healthcare services in re- Health sector.
with various services like health con- mote rural areas.
tent on web, SMS, mobile health vid- Characteristics classifica-
eos, health applications etc. To address some of the challenges ad- tion of mHealth
dressed above, a wide variety of appli-
Healthcare applications of mobile cations based on mobile phone tech- Based on the definitions given above,
phones are steadily gaining popularity nology have been developed and mHealth systems can be classified ac-
over the last few years. With the in- implemented. The rapid growth in cording to the characteristics of the
creasing penetration of mobile net- mobile industry has fuelled innovations source and destination of the medical
works in remote rural villages in India, in mhealth, equally for the developing information flow:
mobile phones are becoming an impor- world. India is one of the fastest grow- O Patient to (medical) supervisor
"The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency."
PR COMMUNICATION AGE January 2016 13
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