Vodafone plans mobile health unit

Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao says the company will unveil a unit to work with pharmaceutical companies and government organisations to provide healthcare services using mobile phone technology, reports Total Telecom.

Vodafone's mobile healthcare unit, comprising a team of around 10 people, will focus on healthcare solutions and work alongside other organisations including pharmaceuticals and government organisations, Colao said at the Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit in London.

"I believe that mobile technology has a significant role to play in the provision of healthcare, primarily in the simplification of work flows, statistical analysis and record keeping and by giving professional healthcare providers the ability to support lifestyle choices for the chronically ill".

The telecommunications giant has big plans to establish a foothold in the telehealth industry, an emerging field that links patients and physicians across the country via video and medical-information technology, states NJ.com.

"These days, everybody is talking about medical care: Who gets it? Who pays for it? Who decides?" says Robert Miller, executive director of technical research at AT&T. "But few people are working on a technology solution that would lower costs and make medical care better at the same time."

AT&T scientists have spent the past year working on prototypes of products aimed at the home healthcare market. The idea is to make everyday household items "part of the network cloud," says Miller.

The medical software and standards compliance industry heavyweights - the Medical Software Industry Association, Australian Information Industry Association, National Association of Testing Authorities and Joint Accreditation System of Australia & New Zealand - have defined and agreed the principles on which compliance, conformance and certification of software products will be based, says ITWire.

In their agreement, the industry bodies also addressed issues of concern for the commercial software industry, which they said helped to “clarify market confusion around roles and processes, and guiding the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) in the development of Australia's premier e-health conformity assessment scheme.”

The joint statement said conformity assessment will be based on existing national and international standards and will focus on the specific software functionality components that align with NEHTA requirements.