To submit a poster abstract or view the submission guidelines, please visit the Call for Poster Abstracts page.

Remote Health Monitoring Device
Presenter: Jamil Husain, CEO, Telophase Corporation

Access to health care is a major problem for Bangladesh’s rural population. In some instances it can take over a day of travel to get to a medical center. The solution: access to an affordable Remote Health Monitor (RHM) by leveraging the country’s extensive mobile network. Diagnosis and monitoring for patients in rural areas mitigates the onsite need for qualified doctors. Doctors in more urban areas can now diagnose medical issues with access to actual real-time transmitted pathology data from the patient. Minimal data usage (160-character text message) is needed to measure temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and heart beats. However, electrocardiogram readings require higher bandwidths. The country’s mobile service rates are adequate to accommodate this technology and affordable at US $10/month. Current prototypes of a RHM have been developed employing sensors, microcontrollers, and software in Bangladesh. These “benchtop” prototypes attach to mobile phones having universal serial bus (USB), infrared, or Bluetooth interfaces and require a rechargeable battery. They can provide valid readings but will require optimized design for practical applicability and deployment at the rural community level. Our investigation suggests a “production” quality RHM can be built at a very minimum cost (US $25) with a usage metric of one device per 100 people. Training on the use of RHM could be the basis of an Income Generating Activity (IGA). Trained technicians (comparable to lab technician or nurse) would charge a small fee to patients. The RHM would facilitate low-cost delivery of basic health care to the poor.

Contact: tsanchez@telophase.com

View Poster as PDF (coming soon)

---

Submit a comment:

Comments:

No comments are currently available for this entry.
You can add a comment by using the comment form above.