Latest projects in mHealthcare

The commercialization of 3G Mobile telephony is set to create a revolution in the way mHealthcare is delivered.  More and more doctors will be available online through mobile phones for consultation.  3G enabled gadgets are also something which will change the way continuous monitoring of vital bio parameters is done presently.  Real time monitoring of cardiac patients etc while the patient is on his normal routine would be a near possibility.

I think for the first time in India, a mobile phone doctor-to-patient service called 'Doctor on Call' has launched by BPL Mobile, Mumbai's leading mobile service. The 9 to 9 service will provide live interaction between doctors and patients. BPL Mobile has launched this Value Added Service to provide a virtual channel that will give subscribers instant access to quality medical assistance. The service will provide a first time telephonic consultation, where the doctors will diagnose the patient's problems under three categories depending on the condition of the patient, Acute, Chronic and Emergency.

A government project named 'Dr SMS' in the southern Indian state Kerala's Kozhikode district, has implemented a system allowing citizens to obtain information about the nearest healthcare facility any time of the day by sending an SMS. The system extracts information from a database prepared by the government machinery under the district medical centre. Within seconds, a message containing the nearest hospital's whereabouts will be sent back to the user.

Airtel users in Karnataka will now have access to two new health care services via their mobile phones – Virtual Blood Bank Service and VacciDate service. Airtel claims that in an emergency, its subscribers can rely on its service to call for Virtual Blood Bank service when in need of blood. This service aims to bridge the gap between blood banks, donors & recipients of blood. Subscribers will need to dial the toll free number 51514 from their Airtel mobiles to access this service.

VacciDate service is a vaccination alert system on mobiles for Airtel subscribers. The service is aimed at parents so they can keep a track of their child’s vaccination dates. Airtel customers need to SMS VACC (Date of Birth in DD MM YYYY Format) to 52225.

Homeopathy chain Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic launches a service to treat patients through mobile phones called mHealth. mHealth is a service that provides multiple facilities to mobile phone users who want to avail of homeopathic treatment from Dr. Batra’s.