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Mobilizing Medical Records in Resource Poor Settings
Mobilizing the medical record is a high impact opportunity, EMR adoption has direct and well documented health impact. However, EMRs are rarely implemented successfully in poor areas because of hardware that is expensive, unfamiliar, or unavailable locally, lack of internet and hassles associated with data re-entry. These issues can be address by SIM based phones.
- EMR will be used more broadly and effectively if more health workers (not just physicians) gather and make use of medical data. Health workers are often out in the field where they do not directly contribute data to EMR.
- Data collected off-site is often recorded on paper; it must be entered into a database by a different (more trained with computers) person, in a different place, at a different time. Unnecessary steps increase confusion, reduce efficiency and accuracy.
- Patients currently do not remotely report health issues (I'm out of insulin needles, where can I get condoms?). This impeeds data collection in poor areas where transportation to a clinic may be a serious investment and many patients walk. Remote reporting would facilitate preventative medicine.
Our goal is to produce software that can:
- Use SIM-based mobile phones. They are cheap, durable, prevalent, require less training and are less likely to make workers a target for theft/mugging (relative to smart phones).
- Use OpenMRS, an open source EMR. OpenMRS manages hundreds of thousands of patients records; existing installations will be able to plug and play with our software, increasing our project's potential to scale.
- Health workers or patients send data via SMS, it will be added to patient's medical record. Physicians will be notified of urgent situations (a hemorrhaging home-based childbirth), and worker/patient may receive SMS advice from clinician or an automated SMS based on electronic records.
- Builds on, smooths interoperability with existing OSS like OpenRosa and Mesh4x.
- Data transfer optimized for low-signal environments.
@MobilizeMRS on Twitter
Hi All,
Project updates.
1. We finished playing the name game. We're going with MobilizeMRS for this project.
2. Working on getting a site up. In the mean time, follow us on twitter! @MobilizeMRS.
3. Wonderful partnerships coming together. We're excited to work with the fine people at FrontlineSMS, among others.
cheers
Isaac
Conference call re: buildingn partnerships, upcoming interview
Hi All,
Our project is very young and we do not have a website yet, so we thought we would keep you up to date on our progress by posting comments to this profile. Being transparent and inviting collaboration is pretty important to us.
So, Daniel and I (Isaac Holeman) just had a conference call discussing our project. We were talking about continuing to build partnerships that will make our work more effective. In particular, we are staying in touch with people who have contacted us from OpenMRS.org and FrontlineSMS.com.
We are also trying to figure out if/when we will be interviewed by USAID. Daniel leaves for Haiti on the 26th, that is soon! Ideally we would like to do our interview before that. Looks like we need to email Amy about that.
As always, please contact me if you are interested in becoming a part of this project.
cheers
Isaac
Thanks for Voting! Contact us if you're interested.
Hi Everyone,
We just wanted to say thank you so much for voting everyone! We are very excited that so many voters expressed interest in our work. This is a new project and we are still forming our team and the partnerships that will make our work more effective, so if you are interested in joining us or learning more, please do not hesitate to contact me at isaac dot holeman at gmail dot com.
Thanks again!
cheers
Isaac
Great project
(Columbia University Mobile Technology Team)
Hi! We find your project very useful and interesting. Indeed lack of access to comunication is a great issue in poor areas and any effort in this direction will yeld great results. We would be interested to learn more from you, our project also trys to speed health and nutrition information, for faster response. We would appreciate any feedback.
Wow
This project looks really awesome. It is innovative, low-cost and pratical. I am very impressed!
Great idea
I've read several places recently how critical delivery models are where medical care is concerned in high poverty areas. The medical research and sometimes even money are in place but the information and medicine often don't reach the people of highest need. This sounds like something that would help make the routines and delivery efficient enough that more people could enjoy appropriate health care.
Happy trails!
Hopefulist
A great partnership
Hey Daniel,
This looks great, and I'm excited to work with you on this. One of the really exciting parts of it that this proposal doesn't capture is how easy it's been to find people who want to work with us on this. You and I found just coincedentally that we were working on basically the same project, and since then other developers have just sort of fallen into place. Looks like we aren't the only ones who the the medical record, and specifically OpenMRS is an important place to go mobile.
cheers
Isaac
I agree
Dude, I totally agree. Hopefully this application will get us the exposure we need to connect with those who have similar ideas and want to collaborate. Plus, I think our idea of an intelligent "command center" for the information going in and out of OpenMRS, especially when the medical records are distributed amongst multiple clinics, is really cool.
Mobile EMR
Hi Daniel and Isaac
congrats on thinking up the great project. I think it is the need of the hour. we have developed a web based app for viewing patient data on the move and would love to explore the possibilities of working together. also we can help you roll out the same in Indiaif you are interested. we are in the field of transcription and claims processing for the last 8 years.check us out at www.acris.co.in
Being hungry, being stripped
Being hungry, being stripped off with the right to have their own home, being sick and not being able to see a doctor is very hard to imagine. "Slumdog Millionaire", an international smash hit and winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards, is inspirational, to say the least. It has called attention to the terrible poverty that people in other countries experience. Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali, two child actors featured in Slumdog Millionaire, are both to be moved to new homes with their families. The Indian government has agreed to pick up the check, citing that the film, and the two diminutive thespians, has made their country proud. The kids featured in Slumdog Millionaire are both residents of India's slums.