Google's Use of Mobile Health Technology in Haiti Could Foreshadow Plans for Mobile Medicine

This article originally appeared at iMedicalApps.com, part of the HCPLive network.

Dr. Roni Zeigler, Chief Health Strategist at Google, recently released a fantastic video that shows how mobile technology was and is being used in the continued response to the Haiti earthquake.

Interesting takeaways from the video:

1. The video shows how physicians have been using their iPhone’s to document patients—making electronic health records on the fly so follow up care can be improved.
2. FrontlineSMS and others have built a SMS short code so healthcare provides can send a message to the 4636 short code, and that information can be aggregated and mapped to show current healthcare needs in a particular area [picture on left].
3. Google has developed an application called “Resource Finder”, in collaboration with the NGOs on the ground (5:31 mark of video).

Based on a patient’s needs, Resource Finder allows healthcare providers to search through all the hospitals in Haiti and send patients to the appropriate place. For example, if you have a patient who needs an orthopedist, you can search through all the hospitals that can provide orthopedic care—and then view how many beds are available—all in real time.

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