Prospects for Mobile Health in Pakistan and Other Developing Countries

Abstract

Pakistan is a developing country with more than half of its population located in rural areas. These areas neither have sufficient health care facilities nor a strong infrastructure that can address the health needs of the people. The expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) around the globe has set up an unprecedented opportunity for delivery of healthcare facilities and infrastructure in these rural areas of Pakistan as well as in other developing countries. Mobile Health (mHealth)-the provision of health care services through mobile telephony-will revolutionize the way health care is delivered. From messaging campaigns to remote monitoring, mobile technology will impact every aspect of health systems. This paper highlights the growth of ICT sector and status of health care facilities in the developing countries, and explores prospects of mHealth as a transformer for health systems and service delivery especially in the remote rural areas.

Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Telemedicine Among Doctors in Karachi

“…The International Telecommunication Union estimates that total mobile cellular subscriptions reached almost 6 billion by the year 2012, corresponding to a global penetration of 86%, with more than 70% of them residing in developing countries. Mobile phone networks cover at least 90% of the world's population, including over 80% of those living in rural areas [16]. This data pave the way for telemedicine, as we can make applications and softwares, which bridges the gap in educating our general population.…”

“…In Karachi, by and large, physicians have relatively high general competence and mental/cognitive capacity and may comprehend the use of technology quickly, that is, become familiar with its operations and can have better guidance without going through the intense training that might be necessary among other user populations [16].…”

“…Capturing patient records by unauthorized persons may jeopardize the principle of the protection of private information of patients and may be able to misuse [21]. A nation-wide study showed e-health as a means to combat communicable diseases like tuberculosis [16]. E-health is an emerging field with little experience or guidance on evaluation frameworks for implementations.…”

Processing medical data: a systematic review

“…Special design consideration should be given to the processing power and physical constraints of the pocket or hand-held devices [40]. …”

A Survey of Software Packages Used for Rough Set Analysis

“…Results available support the premise that systems based on RST give accuracy and reliability that is comparable to Physicians though accurate input data is required. Such systems, in conjunction with other ICT facilities, can be particularly helpful in remote areas of developing countries where healthcare infrastructure is patchy [9]. Detailed discussion on Rough Sets has been presented by the authors in [10].…”