What Could the iPad do for Global Health?

Critics say the iPad is just an overgrown iPhone. But in its defense, an overgrown iPhone turns out to be a pretty useful thing -- one with some real possible implications for global health. Like any other tablet computer, it can be used at a bedside in the same way a clipboard could be, but with major advantages. Periodically, the developing world “jumps the technology gap,” for example, by skipping from no telephone connections to cell-phones without cumbersome landlines in-between. So what could tablet computers like the iPad do to help the medical field leap-frog past the electronic growing pains?

1. There is a Wikipedia movement abreast to make open-source digital textbooks that could be used to train new physicians. In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, for example, is making health journals available to help with the response. As a U.S. medical student I am blessed with instant access to lots of shiny books and the internet, and I can't imagine learning medicine without these resources.

2. If you have ever tried to read a doctor’s handwriting, you understand the plight of the pharmacists of the world. Electronic resources for medicine dosing (such as Epocrates) and electronic prescribing can cut down on amazingly frequent medication errors, such as giving a patient Lodine (an arthritis medication) instead of Iodine (an antiseptic). One Dutch study found the mean number of medication errors to be 55%, a figure that was reduced to 17% after switching to electronic prescriptions.

3. In France, you hand a doctor’s office a small card with a chip on it, and that chip allows them access your entire health history.  This kind of innovation in electronic medical records has the potential to drastically improve patient outcomes.  New groups like Frontline SMS Medic are looking at ways to make text messaging and EMRs integrated and user-friendly for the developing world.

4. In Mali, there are new “telemedicine” programs to share patient imaging, like x-rays, over the internet. The iPad doesn’t yet have a camera feature, but in the future it likely will. Imagine being able to take photographs of a patient’s skin rash and share them in real time with a dermatologist several thousand miles away. In Mali, patients are responsible for their own images, which means that they are often crushed or lost. An iPad would let a physician scroll through consecutive MRI slices or x-rays over time and see what changes.

Of course, this little iPad fantasy is a few years off -- a clinic would need good cell reception and affordable data plans that could compete with the cost of a paper-based system. The iPad itself would need physical protection and repair. But as we consider the cost versus quality within the U.S. health care system, why not help developing countries jump the technology gap and implement a system that's both more efficient and medically effective?

Photo Credit: monumen91