Connected vision care for eradication of preventable blindness

Kuntagod, Nataraj; Paul, Sanjoy K.; Kumaresan, Senthil; Balasubramaniam, Bharat; Ahmed, Imtiaz

doi:10.1109/memea.2015.7145199

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Point of care support studies intended to support nurses and residents at the bedside, thus minimizing medication administration errors and facilitating stroke evaluations and presentations [ 39 , 40 ]. Decision support applications intended to overcome the shortage of skilled healthcare workers [ 41 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both studies were app solutions intended for use by healthcare providers. The Vision Care app allowed for patient data entry via drop-down lists to minimize errors, and provided decision support to field workers, irrespective of their skills, during patient counseling at checkup camps [ 41 ]. The app reduced data input and referral decision times and increased the number of referrals per day.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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mHealth Application Areas and Technology Combinations

2017

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SummaryBackground: With the continuous and enormous spread of mobile technologies, mHealth has evolved as a new subfield of eHealth. While eHealth is broadly focused on information and communication technologies, mHealth seeks to explore more into mobile devices and wireless communication. Since mobile phone penetration has exceeded other infrastructure in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), mHealth is seen as a promising component to provide pervasive and patient-centered care.Objectives: The aim of our research work for this paper is to examine the mHealth literature to identify application areas, target diseases, and mHealth service and technology types that are most appropriate for LMICs.Methods: Based on the 2011 WHO mHealth report, a combination of search terms, all including the word “mHealth”, was identified. A literature review was conducted by searching the PubMed and IEEE Xplore databases. Articles were included if they were published in English, covered an mHealth solution/intervention, involved the use of a mobile communication device, and included a pilot evaluation study. Articles were excluded if they did not provide sufficient detail on the solution covered or did not focus on clinical efficacy/effectiveness. Cross-referencing was also performed on included articles.Results: 842 articles were retrieved and analyzed, 255 of which met the inclusion criteria. North America had the highest number of applications (n=74) followed by Europe (n=50), Asia (n=44), Africa (n=25), and Australia (n=9). The Middle East (n=5) and South America (n=3) had the least number of studies. The majority of solutions addressed diabetes (n=51), obesity (n=25), CVDs (n=24), HIV (n=18), mental health (n=16), health behaviors (n=16), and maternal and child’s health (MCH) (n=11). Fewer solutions addressed asthma (n=7), cancer (n=5), family health planning (n=5), TB (n=3), malaria (n=2), chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n=2), vision care (n=2), and dermatology (n=2). Other solutions targeted stroke, dental health, hepatitis vaccination, cold and flu, ED prescribed antibiotics, iodine deficiency, and liver transplantation (n=1 each). The remainder of solutions (n=14) did not focus on a certain disease. Most applications fell in the areas of health monitoring and surveillance (n=93) and health promotion and raising awareness (n=88). Fewer solutions addressed the areas of communication and reporting (n=11), data collection (n=6), tele-medicine (n=5), emergency medical care (n=3), point of care support (n=2), and decision support (n=2). The majority of solutions used SMS messaging (n=94) or mobile apps (n=71). Fewer used IVR/phone calls (n=8), mobile website/email (n=5), videoconferencing (n=2), MMS (n=2), or video (n=1) or voice messages (n=1). Studies were mostly RCTs, with the majority suffering from small sample sizes and short study durations. Problems addressed by solutions included travel distance for reporting, self-management and disease monitoring, and treatment/medication adherence.Conclusions: SMS and app solutions are the most common forms of mHealth applications. SMS solutions are prevalent in both high and LMICs while app solutions are mostly used in high income countries. Common application areas include health promotion and raising awareness using SMS and health monitoring and surveillance using mobile apps. Remaining application areas are rarely addressed. Diabetes is the most commonly targeted medical condition, yet remains deficient in LMICs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mHealth Application Areas and Technology Combinations

2017

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“…It could also help caregivers to become active partners in caring for their children. In literature, several studies have also demonstrated the efficiency, feasibility and potential of mHealth systems to reduce healthcare access burdens and improve the health of less-resourced populations [8][9][10][28][29][30][31][32], and help caregivers become active partners in caring for their children [32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

User experiences of a mobile phone-based health information and surveillance system (mHISS): A case of caregivers of children under-five in rural communities in Ghana

et al. 2022

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Background The rapid advancement of mobile technology has fueled the use of mobile devices for health interventions and for improving healthcare provision in underserved communities. Despite the potential of mHealth being used as a health information and surveillance tool, its scale-up has been challenging and, in most cases, unable to advance beyond the pilot stage of implementation. The purpose of this study was to explore user experiences of a mobile phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) system among caregivers of children under-five in rural communities in the Asante Akim North District of Ghana. Methods The study adopted an exploratory design. A convenience sampling technique was used to recruit 35 participants who had used an IVR system for at least six months for the study. About 11 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted among participants using a semi-structured interview guide. Thematic content analysis was utilized for the analysis of data in this study. Result The system was found to be acceptable, and the attitude of caregivers towards the system was also positive. The study discovered that the mobile phone-based Health Information and Surveillance System (mHISS) was useful for improving access to healthcare, communicating with health professionals, served as a decision support system, and improved caregivers’ awareness about self-management of childhood illnesses. Poor network quality, unstable electricity power supply, and dropped/cut calls served as significant barriers to using the mHISS system. Conclusion The mHISS system was generally acceptable and could help improve access to healthcare and identify children with severe health conditions during outbreaks of diseases.

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“…Another deployment, named GPower, was in eastern India, where the healthcare outreach program monitored 1200 adolescent girls to flag off vulnerabilities detected in health, education, nutrition, and protection and to initiate real-time action to mitigate potential problems (Ghosh et al, 2015). Another successful mHealth solution in vision care was built to eradicate 80% of preventable blindness by helping the field workers, caregivers and doctors provide timely health assistance and support at the point of care (Kuntagod et al, 2015). The pilot deployment was carried out from Coimbatore and its surrounding rural areas with a major eye care provider in India, having a pan India presence.…”

Section: Other Deploymentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid mHealth - a mobile healthcare application development framework

Kumaresan¹,

Srinivas²,

Maitra³

et al. 2017

IJTMCP

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A new philosophy and architecture of rapid mobile healthcare application development is presented here. Many monolith applications developed on the Lambda architecture had been successful earlier, but of late, this architecture is found inadequate when deployed for different stakeholders. Today's healthcare applications handle large volume of streaming data obtained from dispersed devices. The architecture is to support multiple use cases as the business models are evolving and the products have to be malleable enough to support different functions. This paper describes a working architecture on which mobile healthcare applications can be rapidly built through ingestion and processing of voluminous streaming data. The use of micro-services keeps this architecture flexible. On the client side, application platform as a service (APaaS) frameworks are employed to assist quick development and validation of solutions. Findings from some successfully deployed mobile healthcare applications based on this architecture are also discussed.

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Connected vision care for eradication of preventable blindness

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

mHealth Application Areas and Technology Combinations

mHealth Application Areas and Technology Combinations

User experiences of a mobile phone-based health information and surveillance system (mHISS): A case of caregivers of children under-five in rural communities in Ghana

Rapid mHealth - a mobile healthcare application development framework

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