health & ICT

28.04.2008 An open source developer community, consisting of members like BT, IBM, Oracle, etc., has decided to collaborate to develop common healthcare IT products and services. Anyone will be free to use them to provide interoperable healthcare platforms that will link clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and other points of care to make healthcare systems more efficient.

24.04.2008 IBM is toying with the idea of providing information to rural users on toll-free numbers. Its pilot project in southern India will provide information on healthcare services, small businesses and micro-finance. Once successful, it will be taken to international markets.

22.04.2008 Tom Hadfield famous for selling a soccer website at the age of 17 is now launching a social networking site to help fight malaria that kills a million people a year. The site will not just be a fund raising tool but also connect researchers working on its prevention and treatment.

21.04.2008 A community radio show by college students in Chennai in southern India is bringing alive characters from neighbouring slums to help women deal with issues of health and education. The use of local Tamil dialect is just one of the ways to reach out to its audience in the slums.

08.04.2008 Under Indian government’s Integrated Child Development Services, Lakshadweep, a centrally administered archipelago, has decided to digitise all its 87 anganwadi centres. The move aims to monitor women and child development programmes in the geographically isolated islands.

07.04.2008 A little-known mobile helpline can help you find a blood donor in times of crises. All it takes is an SMS. The messages access an online database of 45,000 blood donors in 300 Indian towns and cities.

12.03.2008 Cardiac telemedicine deployment across Greater Manchester has shown reduction in the burden of cardiac care on the National Health Service and at the same time improved patient care. The study proves that the service avoids the need for immediate referral of patients with non-acute chest-pain symptoms to hospital care in majority of cases.

12.03.2008 New software by India’s National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Jharkhand offers individual search for pregnant women and newborns at the Anganwadi level. The programme will help the state government track the nutrition status of both mother and child and the immunisation of infants.

06.03.2008 It is now possible to become virtual neighbours of the residents of a Sierra Leone slum from anywhere in the world. You can help them reduce infant mortality by donating money and also watch how your money is being utilised. All this can be done through Internet, an initiative of UK-based Save the Children organisation.

22.02.2008 Andhra Pradesh government in southern India will provide cellular phones to rural health workers along with setting up mobile hospitals. In addition, two free caller services for emergency medical help or advice have also been introduced under public-private collaboration.

23.01.2008 Recently in north India’s prosperous state of Punjab, another telemedicine project has been inaugurated. Using the modern Broad Band VPN technology, the tele-linking will be used to make available the health facilities and expert opinions to those in need of urgent medical attention in far-flung areas.

23.01.2008 Recently in north India’s prosperous state of Punjab, another telemedicine project has been inaugurated. Using the modern Broad Band VPN technology, the tele-linking will be used to make available the health facilities and expert opinions to those in need of urgent medical attention in far-flung areas.

18.12.2007 In launching an e-learning tool to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria, OneWorld UK and others had three main objectives: Using ICT to educate young people on reproductive health, improving information on sex education and gender equality.

04.12.2007 Village Resource Centres - to provide integrated services like tele-education, tele-medicine, etc. - have been established by the Indian Space Research Organisation in various Indian states.

30.11.2007

17.11.2007 World’s remotest island in South Africa can now access advanced medical support from IBM and Beacon Equity Partners led team. Satellite communications will enable clinicians to provide real-time diagnostic advice and suggested treatments to the attending physician.

12.11.2007 FreeRice, an innovative internet-based vocabulary game is helping mobilise millions of people in the fight against global hunger. For every correct answer, the site donates ten grains of rice to the World Food Programme. One billion grains of rice have been donated in the last one month – enough to feed more than 50,000 people for one day.

27.10.2007 A citizen held electronic health card (eCard) will enable people to access online electronic prescriptions in Bulgaria. The pilot project will be tested by 1,000 patients who will use their eCard at both their GP and pharmacy.

09.10.2007 Kannettaviin tietokoneisiin liittyvä innovaatio toi nepalilaiselle Mahabir Punille arvostetun Ramon Magsaysay -palkinnon. Pun oli käynnistäjänä projektissa, joka yhdisti seitsemän nepalin vuoristokylää langattomilla yhteyksillä toisiinsa sekä lopulta Internetiin. Kaiken kaikkiaan hanke on tarjonnut 14 syrjäiselle kylälle lääkinnällisiä, koulutuksellisia sekä kaupankäynnillisiä palveluita.

27.08.2007 Researchers in Canada have revealed that computer analysis of existing drugs may be a key to fight new infectious agents and antibiotic-resistant pathogens like deadly tuberculosis strains and staph 'superbugs', making it easier to tackle sudden outbreaks. They said that the use of such "emergency discovery" technology could save time, money and lives during a sudden bio-terrorism attack.