India's Mobile Healthcare

India can look forward to a secure m-health future as the global mobile health technology sets its sights on tripling its growth by 2014.The healthcare sector would undergo a dramatic change with mobile broadband making electronic medical records, insurance and claims data, scheduling, billing, drug information and other patient management systems easily accessible.In a country where seventy percent of the population lives in villages, and eighty percent of healthcare professionals lives in cities, “m-health could provide high quality services at low prices even in remote areas,” states Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, India. The Apollo Group has already set up tele-centres in Chennai and Kolkata where medical services would be available at a call on a mobile phone. Sangita Reddy, ED, operations, Apollo Group says, “We are also running a pilot project to handle emergency pregnancies through video streaming.” ‘Text4baby initiative’, educating expectant mothers on the phone is being planned to be introduce in India by Voxiva. ZMQ Software Systems, Delhi, is also launching ‘Freedom TB initiative’ which is aimed at using mobile phones to build awareness about the disease.Ericsson and Nokia, two leading mobile phone companies, have already introduced projects on healthcare. Smartphones would be the tool of the future in global healthcare, concludes a research study carried out by a Berlin-based research company, Research2guidance. India will not be left behind. For, as Rajiv Sodhi, corporate delivery head, healthcare, HCL remarks, “Mobility in healthcare will introduce preventive care in India.”   
Source-Medindia