By Rocío Mellas
M-Health has become synonymous with equality in the health sector and yet in Latin America it hasn’t yet been supported by political will.
Accessibility, interoperability, exchange and interconnection make it possible for patients with different resources to get better quality care. So: can M-health be developed in Latin America?
With the objective of defining the challenges for mobility in e-Health, at Futurecom 2013, a conference: “M-Health: the Intelligent Connection of Health and Mobility” was organized where successful case studies and trends in Brazil were discussed.
Moderated by Renato Carriao, Telco Business Development Manager at Bull, the panel included notable leaders from the sector: Antonio Paulo Azevedo, from Accenture; Chris McGugan, from Avaya; Eliézer Silva, from the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein; Francisco Sapori Junior, from General Electric Brazil; Katia Galvane Luiz, from Telefónica/Vivo; Luiz Tizatto, from Continua; Oren Pinsky, from Qualcomm; and Valter Wolf, from GSMA.
Although all these figures agreed on the need to drive the development of ICTs for medical care, each had their own view of the current situation in the market.
“If m-Health solutions were to offer interoperability, the industry would be able to affect the lives of the 46 million patients in Brazil,” said Valter Wolf, Director of Market Development at GSMA.
In addition to discussing the cultural changes in a society that create the m-health circuit – he mentioned a solution developed by Teléfonica that reduced waiting lists in Chile and explained the need to carry out market research to calculate the possible socio-economic impact of a mobile solution.
On this same topic, Antonio Paulo Azevedo, Managing Director for Health at Accenture, noted that data must be collected on the available structure in each region.
“India, which has a low level of connectivity, was able to bring medical care to remote areas thanks to teamwork: all that was needed was to give a community leader a smartphone and a portable system,” he said.
Some developing countries have had good results with mobility through programs that have won awards across the globe. Today they are a model for the region. Francisco Sapori Junior, General Manager Healthcare IT at General Electric Brazil, mentioned some successful case studies and added that it is vital to support access to healthcare.
During the panel discussion, a mathematical formula for social responsibility was repeated on several occasions by many different voices: “More mobility = better access to healthcare + better quality care.”
According to Katia Galvane Luiz, Director of Market Development eHealth at Telefónica/Vivo, the company has stopped thinking in terms of telecommunications services in favor of added value technology services.
“If we’re talking about healthcare, in the public or private sector, we’re talking about hospital management, interoperability and information trafficking,” she said.
She also invited leaders in the sector to work on the security of information with specialized professions.
How to include chronic patients?
Hospital focused mobile productivity is now far from being a pipe dream: mobility is a means of access and monitoring. Under this premise, one of the leitmotifs of the debate was the treatment of chronic patients.
“In Brazil, every day 5000 people pass the age of 65 years, which means that every day more people will require special care and it must be borne in mind that these patients are generally associated with chronic diseases,” said Oren Pinsky, New Business Development Director at Qualcomm.
Francisco Sapori Junior proposed the promotion of remote monitoring through tablets and electronic devices. Valter Wolf supported the idea and added to it: “The pillars for making progress in this area are interoperability and scalability.”
Katia Galvane Luiz spoke about the work that Telefónica is doing in Valencia, Spain: “There are now 1500 patients monitoring their own risk levels connected to devices, their electronic health record and their information are connected to the management of remote monitoring.”
For his part, Luiz Tizatto, the President of the Chapter Brazil of Continua Health Alliance, affirmed that it is essential to combine the political will with medical working capacity and explained that the company is working on interoperability in hospital services.
Remote monitoring of patients
Telemedicine and the concept of the “virtual hospital” was the major topic of the speech by Eliézer Silva, Medical Manager at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, who noted that at the care center they managed to drastically diminish the number of patients at risk by treating them immediately.
“Telemedicine is much more than the transfer of information between doctors and nurses as it allows for the monitoring of different patients,” he concluded.
Challenges for ICTs in the e-health environment
“The incorporation of new technologies into e-Health isn’t enough. In the hospital environment, ICTs must reduce costs,” said Eliézer Silva.
Without swerving from the idea that the essence is to provide better quality medical care, but continuing with the cost-benefit line, Oren Pinsky added: “The challenge for e-Health is to provide better quality treatment at lower cost.”
Chris McGugan, Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of Emerging Products & Technology at Avaya Global, addressed the nature of the IT market and spoke about the new business models. To find a place in e-Health, he argued, a series of key words needed to be taken into account: integration, optimization and operation.
“The future is here and we must accept that premise as quickly as possible to work in the present. Patients can’t wait, we need technology, access and consensus. Healthcare deserves and needs it,” Katia Galvane Luiz concluded.
