Last week, members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Health received updates on the Army’s use of wireless technology and mobile phone-based applications to care for wounded soldiers, InformationWeek reports.
Col. Ronald Poropatich — deputy director of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Maryland — told the panel that the Army has deployed mobile technology to send health tips, appointment reminders and general announcements to the cell phones of more than 300 wounded soldiers.
mCare Messaging System
Poropatich highlighted the benefits of a new cellular messaging application, called mCare. He said that since June 1, the application has been used to deliver 18,500 messages.
Poropatich said the mCare system is HIPAA compliant, uses bi-directional messaging and transmits information from a central website that uses a secure virtual private network.
The application allows health care providers to enter and control message content, and review acknowledgements and delivery confirmations (Lewis, InformationWeek, 6/30).
Poropatich said that the initial implementation of mCare has been limited to patients who receive outpatient care at five sites in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia. Four additional sites are under consideration (Dolan, Mobihealthnews, 6/30).
Other Mobile Applications
The Army also has launched pilot projects for two other mobile message applications, according to Poropatich.
One application provides no-cost health information services to new mothers from early pregnancy through their children’s first year. The other mobile application involves a reminder system on glycemic control for patients with diabetes (InformationWeek, 6/30).
Source: iHealthBeat
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