Mobile healthcare hits rural India

Delivery of healthcare services to the Indian rural population through mobile phones could be the cheapest medium to penetrate the bottom of the pyramid and public-private partnerships could be the best way to make this happen, says Indian Express.

“Over the coming years, India will able to provide the best possible healthcare at the cheapest possible price. This calls for coordinated engagement of the government and private sector in this price-sensitive market,” said Sachin Pilot, minister of sate for communication and information technology at the India Economic Summit.

Given the dearth of qualified medical personnel and deep penetration of low-cost mobile telephony, mHealth programmes are well-suited for India's rural population, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Ocular LCD, a Dallas-based developer of projected capacitive (PCAP) touch technology, will provide the touch panel assemblies for the healthcare division of Royal Philips Electronics' next-generation patient monitoring device.

Royal Philips Electronics is a health and well-being company that aims at enhancing people's lives through its solutions.

The PCAP user interface panels and a number of additional enhancements and customisation services designed and manufactured by Ocular will be deployed by Philips in its devices.

South Jersey Healthcare, a community provider in southern New Jersey, has began using Nautilus Medical's AutoRay with Epson's Discproducer to create CDs and DVDs, which allow users to share data with outside referring physicians and patients independent of their location, writes BSM Info.

The Nautilus Medical AutoRay/Epson Discproducer solution aims to allow physicians to securely collect, view and share diagnostic cases among hospitals, other physicians and patients remotely, which can expedite decisions that enhance patient safety as well as allow patients to take ownership of their own medical history.

According to a Wake Forest University study published last year in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, in general, patients are dissatisfied with the level of detail and the amount of time it takes to get medical imaging results.