In Latin America there are many people who need medical care and also many people who have a cell phone. Connect these two facts can save countless lives. Therefore, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is promoting projects in several Latin American countries that use the potential of technology mobile health services. And is not the only, also the Institute of Health Carlos Slim in Mexico is involved in projects of this type. The
that is inspired, according to the Bank, there are nearly 400 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean with a mobile phone.
And, in a region where control and public health management often faces challenges that include the remoteness of the centers, the cost of travel to or failure of these systems transfer of medical data The idea of \u200b\u200bexploiting this technology in the interests of public health is welcome. Mobile Citizen
Recently, the bank launched the program called Mobile City to sponsor project in order to provide cellular services based on taking into account the acute social and economic constraints of the region.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Health Carlos Slim in Mexico has included mobile technology in various ways to increase access and interaction of programs of care, control and prevention.
For one of the programs designed to combat the rise of diabetes in the population, they created a kind of diary, the "Diabediario" which reminds the patient about the disciplined use of drugs and assists in monitoring indicators key as weight, blood pressure and glucose levels. Another is dedicated
the promotion of healthy living with messages that stimulate cell via weight control and reduction of harmful habits like smoking. There is also a similar program that deals with infectious diseases, especially HIV / AIDS.
Helping a mom
The Bank, meanwhile, is considering different experiences in several countries to measure the impact on people and cost-effectiveness in the health system of implementing phones.
In Argentina, for example, is developing an application for early detection and immediate response to outbreaks of dengue and Chagas disease.
Rafael Anta, information technology specialist and communication of the IDB, in charge of the Mobile City, told the BBC that attempts to reduce the time between detection of an outbreak of dengue and possible measures to control, which can last months, when the infection has already multiplied.
"The fact that there focus is on the phone directly to report to a control center that may be in Buenos Aires or another city," Anta said. "It may be a matter of only hours or minutes and can react and make the appropriate arrangements to attend the dengue outbreak and mitigate it."
In Peru, developing an application for the care of young mothers and maternal and child health and once the baby is born, your care in the early months.
According to Rafael Anta, the program begins to interact with the pregnant mother with three types of text messages: education, with respect to food and hygiene information, as pregnancy progresses to remember appointments, and preventive, as the condition of the patient and test results to indicate what actions to take.
"These are the messages we want to give people to take greater responsibility for their condition and especially to influence a culture of preventive health," said IDB official.
When knowledge is indispensable
develops also in Chile a program for remote care of patients with type 2 diabetes, which is a very complicated and many people do not recognize when you have to start.
Chile
The problem occurs when people suspected of having diabetes enter a protocol for diagnosing the disease and leave the check. Anta says that 50% of desertion and may take two or three years before realizing that they have diabetes.
"That time passes in which a person is diabetic and not know it, has a more severe condition of chronic disease and the cost to the healthcare system," he concludes.
With mobile, you start to interact with the patient messages via calls for it to follow the protocol, undergoing medical examinations and attending to the health center with the results.
If it is confirmed that the person is diabetic, a mobile phone given to closely monitor adherence to medication has to be taken.
The technology has existed for more than four or five years to provide any kind of interaction between patient and physician. What is the IDB aims to promote the public health systems incorporate it into your schedule with high priority.
When programs keep a running time will impact assessments and cost benefit, which report to the respective Ministries of Health. Future potential
Rafael Anta provides a great future for the use of mobile technology in health based on what has already been established in other countries.
"They have designed phones that can measure the condition of a pregnant woman and can make a scanner to the fetus," he said.
He adds that "an electrocardiogram can be sent via mobile phone. It is also happening much to do medical tests which are sent to another country, translates the image into a clinical report and returns to the patient."
in Spain and there is a hospital that runs completely out of paper, where information automatically enters electronic systems that are shared with doctors and patients phones.
The system helps reduce the bottleneck of people in emergency and standby time in these rooms, distributing the traffic of patients between different units and distinguishing between who needs immediate attention and who can be diagnosed by phone. Even
improving the efficiency of operating rooms and beds in hospitals, allowing doctors to know what is available and operating room to discharge patients through a text message. (BBC)
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