How smart technology can fight disease in India
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Future of Global Health and Healthcare
A country the size of India, with a diverse and geographically dispersed population that is genetically prone to chronic illness, can pose a significant public health challenge. Luckily, this same population was an early adopter of smartphones. Can app-based technology improve India’s state of health?
The number of smartphones on the nation’s market is expected to pass 50 million units this year. And with the launch of new low-cost phones like the Google Android One, smartphones have become more affordable for more people.
Meanwhile, the technology that goes into making these phones has become more sophisticated. You can now buy devices with accelerometers (that measure the number of steps you take) and altimeters (to measure your relative height when climbing). Mobile health companies are working out how to wirelessly connect to our phones. These help consumers measure their sleep activity and physical exertion; they also have several diagnostic tools, such as blood-pressure cuffs, weighing scales and finger-prick tests for cholesterol and blood glucose.
In New Delhi, smartphones are ubiquitous among schoolchildren in grades 4-8, according to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum and the Public Health Foundation of India. While the results showed that students in more affluent schools had more exposure to the phones and apps, and were therefore more at home using them, all the children were found to be familiar with smartphone technology.
So, how can smartphones improve health? Imagine an overweight 45-year-old urban male with type II diabetes and hypertension. Not only would he have to lose weight through diet and exercise, he would also need to have regular diagnostic tests carried out to measure his blood glucose and cholesterol, and have his blood pressure taken regularly. Finally, he would need to be prescribed a daily dose of drugs such as beta blockers and metformin, and have someone observe him to ensure he complied with the treatment.
However, with mHealth, the afflicted man could use a health-and-fitness app such as Apple’s Health or Android Fit. He could also track his daily diet and exercise via one of the many available free apps – Strava, Move, Lark – which use the phone’s native motion sensors to monitor his activity.
Other devices, such as the Withings weighing scale and blood-pressure cuff, can connect to his smartphone via Bluetooth and help him monitor himself. Pretty soon, companies like Accu-Check will release Bluetooth-enabled devices that measure blood glucose and cholesterol and transmit the readings to his smartphone. The man wouldn’t have to visit a doctor, lab or medical facility.
Given the speed of smartphone adoption, the spread of technical knowledge and the accessibility of hardware and software, it seems only natural that India should embrace mHealth as a viable strategy. This, however, requires a concerted effort by the government, the insurance industry and any other institutional players in India, such as the Employee’s State Insurance scheme, which covers over 50 million individuals.
Indians suffering from, or with risk of, chronic health conditions should be given incentives to acquire the right hardware and software, to help them manage their conditions with minimal effort. Governments and private industry could shape this future and improve the life of millions of Indians. It would only be a matter of a few hundred dollars, in just a few years, and would change the India chronic-disease landscape in the process.
More blogs on healthy India
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Author: Nimish Parekh is chief strategy advisor, South Asia, at UnitedHealth Group.
Image: Men use smartphones on a seafront in Mumbai August 28, 2014. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
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