Project Leader: Ayedee Ace Domingo, MD
Recipient Institution: SynapseHealth Solutions, Inc.
Amount: USD 29,784
Duration: 12 Months
Commencement Date: June 2005

Project Abstract

Healthcare at the rural level can be improved with the use of innovative information and communication technologies. Handheld computers and mobile phones have been used to demonstrate delivery of healthcare services and information to the rural level. This project is the first in the world to develop a user-friendly graphical interface for a mobile telehealth information system over SMS. It also aims to develop pertinent health information content for rural users customized to the mobile screen.

This project will utilize a Java/Symbian-enabled mobile phone to transmit realtime diagnosis and treatment data from the community health worker at the point of care to a remote physician. This is expected to validate the use of handheld devices in delivering cost-effective healthcare information to the rural level, as have similar previous efforts. However, this project is different from those efforts and hopes to build upon them by extending the concept to a more cost-effective platform (mobile phone vs. handheld) using more ubiquitous mobile data communication technology (SMS vs GPRS/WAP). Deployment of the technology developed in this project is thus more applicable to the majority of developing countries that require cost-effective hardware platforms and have little or no GPRS coverage.