Remote Healthcare Applications With Smartphones In Developing Countries

1. Remote Healthcare Applications With Smartphones In Developing Countries Jeffrey Tse Mentors: Gloria Mark, Dani Massaguer University of California, Irvine

2. Lack of Quality Healthcare Systems In Developing Countries • Shortage of medical professionals and hospitals • Patients must travel long distances to gain access to healthcare • Patients fail to receive continuous care • Communication issues often arise between the doctor and patients

3. Rise of Mobile Phones In Underprivileged Regions • 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world in contrast to the 11 million hospital beds • Mobile phone technology has cheaper, more powerful, and more accessible • Mobile network coverage is becoming more widespread Source: Vodafone Foundation

4. Adoption of Smartphones for Healthcare Applications • Smartphones can assist health professionals when diagnosing, treating, or monitoring a patient • Minimize patient traveling for health services • Storage and exchange of patient information • Avoid confusion or miscommunication between doctors and patients

5. Minimizing Patient Traveling for Health Services • Remote diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients via virtualized medical devices and smartphones • Virtualized Medical Devices: Portable biosensors that interface with smartphones • Smartphones act as a general purpose computing device

6. Integration of Portable Biosensors with Smartphones Figure 4: Withings Blood Pressure Monitor Figure 2: AliveCor ECG Figure 3: Withings Body Scale

7. Storing and Transmitting Patient Information • Easy access and management of patients’ medical records improves quality and continuity of care received by patients • Exchanging of patient information with other clinics/hospitals and health professionals also improves quality of healthcare services

8. Preventing Communication Issues Between Doctors and Patients • 3D avatars of the human body assist health professionals • An interactive avatar • Views of the different physiological systems of the human body • Avatar resembles patients’ body allowing doctors to pinpoint regions of pain felt by the patient by clicking a region on the avatar’s body

9. Interactive 3D Avatar of the Human Body Figure 1: Google Body Browser

10. VirTelMed Smartphone Application • Development of an intuitive mobile healthcare application that incorporates biosensors and the 3D avatar to tackle existing healthcare issues in developing countries

11. Future Implementations • Social networking like feature to allow users to post health concerns/questions • Upload photos taken by smartphone camera to a private gallery

12. Testing • Affiliation with Global Medical Training connects us with physicians in developing countries • Joining GMT organized trips to underdeveloped countries • Recently received IRB approval to perform users studies here at UCI • Advisory board consisting of researchers and physicians all over the world

13. Global Medical Training

14. Conclusion • Adopting the use of smartphones for healthcare applications in developing countries has the potential to: • Decrease traveling done by patients • Improve informational continuity • Avoid communication problems between patients and doctors • Improves BOTH domestic health care systems as well as healthcare systems abroad

15. End • Thank You! • Questions?