18 October 2008

Mobile Technology in Global E-Health & Disaster Relief Communications

Courtesy of Jorge Fernandez. ©2004. All Rights Reserved.





EpiSurveyor Software for Wireless Health Data Collection


http://www.datadyne.org/?q=episurveyor/home

http://www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/technology/mobile-health-for-development.html

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEVMARKETPLACE/Resources/205097-1099409088482/Brief-DataDyneEpiSurveyor.pdf

Status of NanoMedicine & Medical NanoRobotics

© Walkman 16. Creative Commons License 3.0

http://www.nanomedicine.com/Papers/NMRevMar05.pdf

http://www.nanomedicine.com/

http://foresight.org/Nanomedicine/index.html

NanoMedicine Catalytic: Release of Neurological Drugs

Catalytic NanoMedicine III: Platinum Nanoparticles / Catalytic Action

http://www.uam.mx/

13 October 2008

TeleMedicine and Disaster Relief

Earthquake 2005. Kashmir. Image: Courtesy of Medical Teams International. http://www.medicalteams.org/site/PageServer?pagename=what_aid
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Mobile telemedicine package for disasters


Healthcare technology aspects of disaster planning - based on the post-tsunami experience


Proposal of high-definition digital video ip transmission application on emergency satellite network at disaster areas


E-Health and telemedicine in disaster relief and management

Palliative Care & End-of-Life Interdisciplinary Approaches

Image: © Cindy Chang. All Rights Reserved.


End-of-Life Physician Education Resources Center


Palliative & end-of-life care: clinical practice guidelines


Palliative practice & interdisciplinary collaborations



A time for listening & caring: spirituality and the care of the chronically ill and dying


The event of death: a phenomenological enquiry


Caring for dying people of different faiths


Medicine & compassion: a Tibetan Lama's guidance for caregivers


End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium



End-of-Life Education Fellowship Program / American Medical Student Association


Symptom relief in terminal illness


mHealth & Mobile TeleMedicine sessions

Image: © Foreby. Creative Commons License / SRR.

http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/tools/disrupted_sectors/module_07/en/index.html


PRESS RELEASE:

Conference engages private sector and public health leaders in developing vision for improved healthcare in the developing world

Bellagio, Italy (July 28, 2008) —



The United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation’s Technology Partnership (Technology Partnership) announced today the start of a conference session designed to harness the potential of mobile health (mHealth) to unlock access to health data and improve healthcare in the developing world. Co-facilitated by the Technology Partnership and the Telemedicine Society of India, the session is part of the Rockefeller Foundation conference “Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partners, Local Solutions.”



The “mHealth and Mobile Telemedicine” session is gathering 25 private sector and public health leaders to explore the challenges, opportunities and way forward in building mHealth systems that can improve the access, efficiency and quality of health services in the developing world. The overarching goal of the Rockefeller Foundation conference is to develop a roadmap and global partnerships that support the use of emerging digital technologies to improve public health.



“As global trends such as climate change, the food crisis, and human migration place increasing strains on developing country health systems, there is an ever larger need for technological innovation to help strengthen international public health efforts,” said Claire Thwaites, Technology Partnership Head, UN Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation. “Developments in the field of mHealth in particular are creating a remarkable opportunity to bring about a sea change in healthcare delivery, even in the most resource-poor environments,” she added.



mHealth session participants include representatives of Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and Qualcomm, as well as the Earth Institute, Gates Foundation, MIT, and the UN World Health Organization. Over the week, participants will examine the landscape of mHealth and mobile telemedicine, assess priority issues, and identify potential next steps for a multi-sector partnership dedicated to advancing mHealth programs in the Global South.





“Mobile phone use is exploding across the developing world, offering the opportunity to leapfrog other applications and services on both the health and technology fronts,” said Mitul Shah, Senior Director of Technology at the United Nations Foundation. “This collaborative effort with the Rockefeller Foundation and the other private sector and public health leaders assembled here this week opens the door for the kind of broader, public-private partnership that could bring us to a tipping point in addressing some of the most intractable public health challenges,” he said.
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Note: For more information on the “mHealth and Mobile Telemedicine” session, visit the Rockefeller Foundation’s eHealth Connection website at http://www.ehealth-connection.org/.
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About the UN Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation PartnershipThe UN Foundation-Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership strives to be the leading public-private alliance using strategic technology programmes to strengthen the UN’s humanitarian efforts worldwide. Created in October 2005, with a £10 million commitment from The Vodafone Group Foundation matched by £5 million from the UN Foundation, the Partnership has three core commitments: (1) to develop rapid response telecoms teams to aid disaster relief; (2) to develop health data systems that improve access to health data thereby helping to combat disease; and (3) to promote research and innovative initiatives using technology as an agent and tool for international development.


Further information can be found at: www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.

Katherine MillerUnited Nations FoundationM: (+1) 202.489.2205E:
kmiller@unfoundation.org I: www.unfoundation.org/vodafone

Helen BrockettThe Vodafone Group FoundationT: +44 (0) 7500 032886E: helen.brockett@vodafone.comI: http://www.vodafonefoundation.org/

Claire Thwaites
Head of the Vodafone Foundation and UN Foundation Partnership
Claire Thwaites joined the UN Foundation in December 2007; she heads the Partnership between the Vodafone Foundation and the United Nations Foundation.

Mitul Shah
Senior Director, Technology Partnerships
Mr. Mitul Shah is the Senior Director of Technology Partnerships at the United Nations Foundation. He is directing a partnership between the Vodafone Group Foundation and the UN Foundation. He is also directing the United Nations Foundation’s efforts on program evaluation and performance measurement.

Harnessing Cell Phone Technology for Mobile Health Applications

Image Source: University of California (Berkeley). Courtesy of Dr. Boris Rubinsky.
Secondary Text Source: Sujathafan.

"The cell phone is going to solve rural health-care problems, whether it's rural India or rural Indiana. Hard to believe – Is it not?

Indeed, of some 30 health-care-related projects at various universities recently funded by Microsoft (MSFT) Research, 17 involve cell phones. One team, at Washington University in St. Louis, is attempting to take ultrasound readings using a cell phone and a TV. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh are working to create a heart monitor that relies on a cell phone to analyze the readings and dial 911 whenever a person's cardiac activity careens into dangerous territory, providing emergency responders with a location and a preliminary diagnosis.

Now, via a cell phone, you can have easy access to medical centres having ultrasounds, X-rays, magnetic resonance images and other medical imaging technology. This technique, developed by Prof. Boris Rubinsky, has the potential to provide sophisticated radiological diagnoses and treatment to the majority of the world's population lacking access to such technology.

Most medical imaging devices consist of three essential components: the data acquisition hardware that is connected to the patient, the image processing software and a monitor to display the image. When these components are combined into one unit, machine parts often become redundant, substantially increasing the cost of the device.

Rubinsky (UC Berkeley professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering) and his team came up with the novel idea of physically separating these components so that the most complicated element - the processing software used to reconstruct the raw data into a meaningful image - can reside at an offsite central location, presumably in a large center where resources are available for its operation and maintenance. This central location would be used to service multiple remote sites where far simpler machines collect the raw data from the patients.

That's where the cell phone comes in. The phone, hooked up to the data acquisition device, would transmit the raw data to the central server where the information would be used to create an image. The server would then relay the image back to the cell phone, where it can be viewed on the cell phone's screen.

"This design significantly lowers the cost of medical imaging because the apparatus at the patient site is greatly simplified, and there is no need for personnel highly trained in imaging processing," said Ivorra, the post-doctoral researcher. "The data acquisition device can be made with off-the-shelf parts that somebody with basic technical training can operate. As for cell phones, you could be out in the middle of a remote village and still have cell phone access. They're so prevalent because so little infrastructure is required to maintain wireless networks."

The principle behind medical imaging is the production of a map based upon the physical properties of different types of tissue, such as tumors, muscle and fat. An MRI, for instance, produces a map of proton density in different tissue, while an ultrasound produces a map based upon pressure waves.

The researchers chose electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to demonstrate the feasibility of using cell phones in medical imaging. EIT is based upon the principle that diseased tissue transmits electrical currents differently than does healthy tissue. The difference in resistance to electrical currents is translated into an image. "

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/29_cellphone.shtml

SATELLIFE's Medical PDAs Projects in Africa & Asia

Image source: University of Queensland, Australia.