Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014

Mobile Healthcare ServicesIn Developing Countries

Adel AMRICOO Trustiser, Professor at Ecole

Centrale de Paris and ISEP

ITU Workshop on “ICT Innovations in Emerging Economies”

(Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014)

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Agenda

MotivationsMobile Healthcare servicesMobile Healthcare services areasTechnology enablers for mobile healthcareRecommendations

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Motivations

One the triggers of the Arab uprising revolutions:

Large disparities between geographical regions on income, infrastructure and public services

Very large number of individuals don’t receive the care they need in term of employment, healthcare services, educationHealthcare is a big issue on rural regions (people with low income and far from medical centers). Bad weather conditions on winter and bad transport infrastructure add tremendous hurdles for these population to join these centers.

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Motivations

Public hospitals become very crowded with poor quality services. High unemployment rate and low income workers cannot afford private doctors servicesAlarming increasing rate of cardiovascular, diabetes diseases du to bad nutrition and poor diet. There is a big lack of preventing the problems before they happen

Chronic long duration diseases cost a lot of money to the healthcare system:

~75% of medical expenditures takes place in small number of diseases (cardiovascular, diabetes, asthma and cancer)There is a big lack of using mobile technologies to reduce these huge costs.

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Mobile Healthcare

Mobile Healthcare is a big desert in the Arab World!Mobile Healthcare could:

Fix disparities between the regions by providing an affordable access to healthcare services to low income worker and jobless

Offer better prevention against chronic diseases through educational information (guidance to smokers to stop smocking, advices for better nutrition, calories counters, monitoring of critical health indicators, etc)

Reduce the cost of chronic diseases through the use of mobile systems to monitor patient symptoms and raise alerts in the case of a problem

Remote monitoring reduce unnecessary visits to doctors and could improve patient quality of life (visits to the hospitals generate a lot of stress to them)

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Mobile Healthcare Services

Remote monitoring, testing and diagnosis:Data collectionDisease surveillanceDiagnosis supportMobile technology (smart phones connected to medical sensors, mobile networks) become an information transmission tool of patient medical data to centrally located providers. These information is processed automatically by specialized software programs which raise alerts to doctors in case of abnormal data

Prevention management:Pregnant woman controlYoung infants controlPrevention against chronic diseases

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Mobile Healthcare Services

Two types of remote monitoring services:Lightweight remote monitoring service:

Medical data gathered by local sensors connected to a smart phone

Heavyweight remote monitoring service:The monitoring is done through a trained intermediaries and local facilitators and medical data sent through mobile networks

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Mobile Healthcare Innovations

Explosion of mobile healthcare innovations:More than 50 000 applications in Apple Store!Mobile Apps features examples:

Management of chronic diseasesCalories countersPrescription reminders, appointment notices, medical references, etcTrack Alzheimer’s patient position (case the patient get lost)

Explosion of medical wearable sensors and devises:Example: Android smart watch connected heartbeats sensors, etc

Explosion of mobile healthcare backend platforms:Example:2net platform developed by Qualcomm, etc

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Mobile Healthcare Innovation (Example)

An ECG (Electrocardiogram) in your pocket:The AliveCor System is made up of a smartphone-based Heart Monitor and the AliveECG application coupled with optional AliveCor Services that include professional ECG analysis in as little as 30 minutes and a free AliveCor account to connect doctors and patients. (Ref: http://www.alivecor.com/)

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Technology Enablers for Mobile Healthcare Services Expansion

Cloud Computing4G and high speed networksBig Data / Data MiningExpert SystemsSocial Networks

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Technology Enablers for Mobile Healthcare Services Expansion

Mobile Cloud Computing

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Technology Enablers for Mobile Healthcare Services Expansion

Mobile Backend As A Service

Backend as a Service: a model for providing web and mobile app developers with a way to link their applications to hosted backend cloud storage while also providing features such as user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services, all as an integrated offering.

Key goal is to abstract away all the complexity related to cloud and cloud management, and provide simple APIs that can be used across all popular mobile platforms.

“Don’t worry about the server side, we’ll take care of it for you.”

This is a very popular area these days; 40+ startup companies in this area have sprung up recently.

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Recommendations for Mobile Healthcare Services

There are huge opportunities of mobile healthcare in developing countries:

Public sector should build a strategic plan to deploy mobile healthcare services:

Offer good quality healthcare services to disadvantaged regionsOffer better patient experience and reduce crowded hospitalsBig cost savingBetter prevention

Private sector could also have tremendous business opportunities with mobile healthcare:

Private doctors could reach more patients with mobile technologyNew business models based on monthly subscription fees for remote monitoring => recurrent revenues

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Mobile Healthcare Services Opportunities to Operators

Mobile operators could play an important role by moving from passive communication network providers to an active partnerMobile Money will be targeted at those without bank accounts in rural regions or for joblessMobile Healthcare services are generic, mobile operators could deploy the same solutions to different countries