mHealth and Cloud Computing in Developing Countries Eric Gibson Jr

Kenya Background Population of more than 43 million people Half of population living in poverty As of 2011, their GDP was estimated at 33.6 billion. However, only 4.6 percent of their GDP was invested in its health care system Preventable diseases remain a serious issue

South Africa Background Poor distribution of resources between private and public sector health workers, and within the public sector High rate of HIV/AIDS contraction Life expectancy at birth is approximately 49 years.

What is mHealth? mHealth is the combining of mobile technologies with existing health care systems to provide health care delivery to customers. the delivery of health-related services and information via mobile technologies.

Sub-Areas of mHealth mHealth & Tele-health mHealth & Wireless Health Tele-health is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies mHealth & Wireless Health  Wireless Health integrates wireless technology into traditional medicine, such as for diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of illness. mHealth & eHealth eHealth describes any healthcare practice supported by electronic information processing and communication, so it has broader reach than mHealth, which relates to practices using mobile technologies.

Mobile Health or Modern Health? Mobile Health includes the following Voice & SMS Smartphones Laptop computers MP3 Players Patient monitoring devices

Mobile Health or Modern Health? (Cont.) Modern Health includes the following Digital & electronic mobile health Telehealth and telemedicine Electronic sensors & cloud-based monitoring services Wireless connections Electronic medical & personal health records

Mobile Phone Penetration at a Glance Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database

Why mHealth? Concerns with the various constraints felt by healthcare systems in developing countries Rapid rise of mobile phone penetration to large segments of the healthcare workforce and population as a whole in developing countries.

mHealth Implementation Challenges Lack of physician/provider support Lack of existing technology Concerns about regulation of applications Absence of legal guidelines on privacy and confidentiality  

mHealth Technology Platform for Patient Engagement Applications (video) ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVUYeMT4LG8

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