The images, available on the system can easily be send back to the requested mobile phone via MMS service. The good thing is that only incurred cost in this process will be at the reception end, using the GPRS on the mobile phone.
We are developing a sustainable Tele-healthcare system that utilizes the mobile platform to extend tele-healthcare services in rural Mardan. This includes Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Upto now we have successfully developed, tested and utilized SMS Service in the facility. It is one of the most vital objectives of our project as we will be providing training to LHWs by unleashing the opportunities provided by mobile platform. Mobile is one of the best ways to reach to public in order to create health awareness as large population in Pakistan uses mobile and providing services through it.
The SMS Service application developed by our team members enables lady health workers operating in rural areas and disaster affected communities to get rapid diagnosis, expert advice, and opinions from specialists around the world. For the time being SMS service is being utilized to connect to our central system through SMS to get expert medical advice, register patients and their appointments with the doctors. This service is helping in reducing the sudden deaths, medical complications and increasing prevention of pandemic diseases in rural areas at a very low-cost.
Following SMS based mobile services have been implemented:
I am glad to tell that Digital Ultrasound Machine and Video Otoscope will be delivered to UMTrust Hospital in few days. It expects to soon launch health-related services using these equipments in Mardan. We are working on the application in which image in real-time will be transferred easily through mobile phones. Once this service is active then we will have consultation with other doctors by sending the images taken by using these equipments. We can have consultation through cell phones or broadband capability. We aim to provide best medical facilities in Mardan.
We have prepared a manual for Tele-health SMS services. The manual is in English and Urdu both languages. Our focus is to make Lady Health Workers use these mobile services easily. Keeping their education level in mind we translated the manual in Urdu language and soon it will be translated in Pushto language also. Urdu and Pushto are the languages mostly spoken in Mardan where our project is being implemented. We tried to keep the manual in simple words and most of the actions are explained by images so that any person can understand our system.
The culture of Mardan where our project is being implemented is very conservative. Still in today's world, birth of a boy is an occasion of great rejoicing. The parents of the baby receive felicitations from friends and relatives where as the birth of a girl is not welcomed and generally goes unnoticed. The society is totally male dominated. All the women are Dependant on their men-folk financially or otherwise. Most of them do not bother to go to the hospitals for their own care. They prefer lady health workers to get treated at homes. Most of them are confined to their homes and they need a male member to accompany them if they go out to hospitals or else. It is not easy to change customs, practices and myths existing in a society for centuries. But our project is playing a great role in providing awareness to women in the health care field.
Our Project places special emphasis on maternal and child health care. The protection of mothers and children is noticeable because of their special needs that must be met to ensure not only the survival but also the healthy development of the fetus, child and mother. All the antenatal, natal, postnatal and childcare alerts is delivering through Jaroka Tele-health System. Affordable and accessible health care through technology makes it possible to minimize health problems in adult life. If the mother is healthy, child would be healthy and it brings about improvement in the overall health of the population and in the quality of life of the individual.
Soon we will be keeping track of the pregnant ladies vaccination and new born babies vaccination. With this programme we will make sure that once the patient is registered in our hospital he/she would get proper scheduled vaccination. And lady health worker will be responsible to keep the track. This way mother and child both will be vaccinated on time.
There is one more good news for our project. Research paper with a topic “Afforable and Accessible Tele-healthcare to rural areas of Pakistan through web and mobile based technologies” has been accepted for the Honet '09 - 6th International Symposium. The whole research paper is reflecting our project efforts. We have discussed tele-health SMS services in detail.
The conference is going to be held on December 28-29, 2009 in Grand Hall, Pharos University Alexandria, Egypt. Our project members will be attending this conference.
For further information about Honet'09 please visit http://honet.uncc.edu
