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Colleagues,

As part of an increased emphasis on international medical outreach efforts, the Military Health System is ... leveraging cell phones ... to improve public health through text messaging...

... The potential use of cell phones as innovative, inexpensive and efficient tools for public health was a primary theme in a Mobile Health Summit convened by the MHS last December that included the Combatant Command surgeons and experts from multiple federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations and the World Health Organization (WHO)...

... “Over half the world (or about 4 billion people) own a cell phone and only 400 million own a computer, so it’s only a matter of time before everyone uses a cell phone for all their computing needs,” said Col. (Dr.) Ron Poropatich, deputy director of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Md....

... Poropatich said mHealth can be used for such applications as clinical consultation, education, research, biosurveillance and disease management. DoD projects include an ongoing research protocol being conducted by the Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Diabetes Institute, which is utilizing Internet-enabled cell phones to pull up 15- to 30-second video clips that provide educational content on exercise, blood glucose monitoring and diet...

... Another cell phone project is being carried out at several community-based Warrior Transition Units through a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform that is aimed primarily at Reserve and National Guard members with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or suspected TBI...

... International mHealth efforts include a project in Peru being carried out by DoD’s Global Emerging Infections System (DoD-GEIS) in conjunction with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center in Lima and the Peruvian military. It utilizes cell phones for biosurveillance detection and sending out alerts about suspected emerging infections...

... Poropatich said that in the future the use of mobile phones could potentially be expanded to areas such as maternal and child health care; clinical consultations where pictures of a rash, for example, could be exchanged between providers to reach a diagnosis; biosurveillance research; and medical logistics in which information from the field is uploaded about medication stocks so supply chain personnel know when they need to be resupplied...

Read on, and hear a podcast interview of Colonel Poropatich, M.D. on international and U.S. mHealth apps at: http://www.health.mil/Press/Release.aspx?ID=1031

ENJOY!

CC

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Replies to This Forum Entry

Colleagues,

My Thanks to MedTech-IQ member, Mary Kratz, who is a leader in international mHealth, Advanced Distributed Learning, and HealthGrid Computing, for the recommended links below. Mary has recently been doing creative work in Africa with PEPFAR and HIV/AIDs prevention ...
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Hey CC,

I attended the mHealth Summit and saw Ron's presentation. You may want
to point MedTechIQ folks to the mHealth Alliance website at

http://www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/technology/mhealth-allian...


Funded by the UN Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Vodaphone
Foundation, the mHealth Alliance engaged in a public-private partnership
with PEPFAR. The Press Release from the Summit at

http://www.unfoundation.org/press-center/press-releases/2009/us-pre...

mek

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