Publications :: Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa (to be pubished in the Journal of Economic Perspectives) While current research suggests that mobile phone coverage and adoption have had positive impacts on agricultural and labor market efficiency and welfare in certain countries, empirical evidence is still somewhat limited. In addition, mobile phone technology cannot serve as the “silver bullet” for development in sub-Saharan Africa. Careful impact evaluations of mobile phone development projects are required to better understand their impacts upon economic and social outcomes, and mobile phone technology must work in partnership with other public good provision and investment. Scientific Articles :: Public Health in an Era of Personal Health Records: Opportunities for Innovation and New Partnerships (J Med Internet Res 2010;12(3):e33) doi:10.2196/jmir.1346 In the near future, citizens will be able to control and manage their own health information through electronic personal health record systems and tools. The clinical benefits of this innovation, such as cost savings, error reduction, and improved communication, have been discussed in the literature and public forums, as have issues related to privacy and confidentiality. Receiving little attention are the benefits these will have for public health. The benefits and potential for innovation are broad and speak directly to core public health functions such as health monitoring, outbreak management, empowerment, linking to services, and research. Coupled with this is a new relationship with citizens as key partners in protecting and promoting the public’s health. :: New Technology and Health Care Costs — The Case of Robot-Assisted Surgery (18 August 2010 - NEJM) Technological innovation in health care is an important driver of cost growth. Doctors and patients often embrace new modes of treatment before their merits and weaknesses are fully understood. These technologies can lead to increases in costs, either because they are simply more expensive than previous treatments or because their introduction leads to an expansion in the types and numbers of patients treated. :: Medical informatics: Past, present, future ( Int J Med Inform. 2010 Sep;79(9):599-610. Epub 2010 Jul 7.) Objective: To reflect about medical informatics as a discipline. To suggest significant future research directions with the purpose of stimulating further discussion. Methods: Exploring and discussing important developments in medical informatics from the past and in the present by way of examples. Reflecting on the role of IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association, in influencing the discipline. eHealth Worldwide :: Malawi: Using Touchscreen Electronic Medical Record Systems to Support and Monitor National Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy in Malawi. PLoS Med 7(8): e1000319. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000319 (August 10, 2010) Gerry Douglas and colleagues describe the rationale and their experience with scaling up electronic health records in six antiretroviral treatment sites in Malawi.The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa is unprecedented. Effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems are essential to track patient access to and retention on ART; to encourage feedback to improve clinic-based care; and to ensure rational drug forecasting and timely procurement to prevent drug stock-outs [1]. Complete and accurate data are a fundamental prerequisite for any M&E system. :: Norway: Digital prescription takes first steps (12 August 2010 - ePractice.eu) In practice, when the patients participating in the pilot need a prescription, their doctors send it to a central database via their computer. The only thing the patients need to do to have the medicines delivered at the pharmacy, is to provide their social security number to the chemist. Digital prescriptions bring many advantages to those involved in the process. :: South Korea: Design and implementation of a standards-based interoperable clinical decision support architecture in the context of the Korean EHR International Journal of Medical Informatics Volume 79, Issue 9, September 2010, Pages 611-622 In 2000 the Korean government initiated efforts to secure healthcare accessibility and efficiency anytime and anywhere via the nationwide healthcare information system by the end of 2010. According to the master plan, electronic health record (EHR) research and development projects were designed in 2005. :: Turkey: Turkish mobile firm links to docs (20 August 2010 - eHealtheurope) The HelloDoctor service will give Avea customers in the 81 cities covered by its 3G service the ability to speak directly to one of 20 doctors at one of Acibadem’s call centres over a video link, 24 hours a day, seven says a week. The doctors will offer general medical advice and recommendations on medicines, rather than diagnosing illnesses or prescribing treatments. They will also provide nutritional information to children and advice on growth conditions. Articles :: Telemedicine burgeoning in BRIC countries (18 August 2010 - HealthcareIT) The study, "Telemedicine Market in Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) - Advanced Technologies, Global Forecast," shows that the telemedicine sector in those fast-emerging economies is expected to reach a market size of $418.4 million by the year 2014, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.8 percent from 2009 to 2014.   Innovations and breakthroughs :: Social networks can warn of disease after disasters In Haiti, we have developed the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System (HEAS) to inform — but not displace — existing public health surveillance capabilities. HEAS is the world's first infectious disease forecasting centre, working rather like a short-range weather service. It is built on peer-to-peer sharing of the information vital to doctors facing harrowing medical challenges. :: Student's project could have big effect on global health Rice University senior Andy Miller took on a school project last year to design a highly functional but portable, low-cost microscope. Eighteen months later, health care workers in the developing world may have a device to diagnose disease where people live. Using off-the-shelf parts and a minimalist approach, Miller invented a 2 1/2-pound, battery-powered microscope that a new study shows is just as good at diagnosing tuberculosis as hospital machines that retail for $40,000. Miller's costs $220. :: Ushahidi Platform The Ushahidi Platform allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. :: Revolutionary HIV/AIDS Point-of-Care Diagnostics System Debuts at AIDS 2010 Continuum, a global innovation and design consultancy headquartered in Boston, announced today that the company has collaborated with Daktari Diagnostics, a company developing point-of-care diagnostics for global health, to create the Daktari CD4, a revolutionary HIV/AIDS point-of-care test that can perform critical, low-cost CD4 counts to guide HIV treatment. Opinions Why medicine needs broadband (By Joel White, Executive Director, Health IT Now Coalition) Over the past decade the ability of even small medical practices to access the Internet using a broadband connection has given us an entirely new set of tools to be far more efficient in the backroom record-keeping of a practice, better able to bring high-tech diagnostics and treatments to rural areas; and, ...

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