HEWLETT-PACKARD : HP and PING Collaborate on Mobile Health Monitoring to Reduce Malaria
06/06/2011 | 07:50am
On the heels of the United Nations Social Innovation Summit, HP
(NYSE:HPQ) and nonprofit organization Positive
Innovation for the Next Generation (PING) are launching a
collaboration to improve the quality and efficiency of disease
surveillance in Botswana through mobile health monitoring technology
that can enhance protection and prevention against major malaria
outbreaks.
Advancing the country toward its goal of malaria elimination, the
initiative uses HP webOS and cloud computing technology to enable health
workers to more efficiently predict, observe and minimize the harm
caused by outbreaks.
In partnership with the Clinton
Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and mobile network provider MASCOM,
the program equips healthcare workers in Botswana with HP Palm Pre 2
smartphones to collect malaria data, notify the Ministry of Health about
outbreaks and tag both data and disease surveillance information with
GPS coordinates. This data will contribute to a first-ever geographic
map of disease transmission in the country, enabling faster response
times and better measurement of malaria cases to monitor treatment and
scale up the distribution of mosquito nets.
The program's year-long pilot phase is the largest mobile health pilot
program in Botswana, running throughout the malaria season. Future
programs are planned to reach additional outbreak-prone diseases in the
region.
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Data analysis in the cloud: The
initiative enables healthcare workers to collect data via a webOS
application on a mobile device, upload the data over a mobile network,
and analyze and share the data via the cloud. Through this system,
analysis now takes hours rather than weeks to complete.
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Rapid outbreak notification: When an
outbreak is detected, healthcare workers can quickly upload specific
case and location information from their mobile devices in the field.
Health officers in the area and members of the Ministry of Health then
receive a text message alerting them of the outbreak, enabling rapid
deployment of preventative measures to reduce disease transmission.
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Higher accuracy with real-time surveys:
Through the flexibility and ease of development on the webOS platform,
a surveillance application enables health workers to perform real-time
surveys from the field. Health workers are able to enter accurate,
context-rich data through pictures, video, audio, GPS coordinates,
qualitative and quantitative information about the case.
In the next phase of the program, HP and PING plan to develop a
cloud-based health services package for consumers in Botswana, creating
a sustainable system for delivering even more health-related information
to users over mobile networks.
Advancing health monitoring
Despite progress in disease eradication, the World Health Organization
reports that more than 780,000 people died from malaria-related
illnesses in 2009, most of them children under the age of five. In
Africa, 75 million people, or 10 percent of the population, are at risk
to contract malaria.(1) Mobile technology has the potential
to drastically improve malaria surveillance by speeding data collection
and generating more context-aware information about outbreaks.
Health initiatives in Africa
As part of the company's global
social innovation program, HP aims to enrich society by using the
breadth and scale of its technology to drive structural, systemic
improvements in health access and delivery.
In addition to the collaboration with PING, HP has alliances with
African social enterprise mPedigree
to fight counterfeit malaria drugs through an innovative mobile phone
and cloud services solution; nonprofit organization mothers2mothers
to help prevent HIV transmission from mothers to infants; and the CHAI
to greatly improve the speed of HIV diagnosis for infants in Kenya.
Supporting quotes
"We're focused on addressing health and development problems by not only
using technology in an innovative way, but also by creating more problem
solvers in the local population. By combining our socially active core
with innovation and business acumen from HP, and the scale of government
organizations, we can achieve the greatest opportunity for lasting
social change."
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Katy Digovich, director, Operations, PING
"There is tremendous opportunity for mobile technology to transform
public health services in both developing and developed markets. The
full potential of applying mobile and cloud services to advance
healthcare has yet to be reached, and we're committed to applying our
technology expertise to help address some of the world's most difficult
global health challenges."
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Gabriele Zedlmayer, vice president, Office of Global Social
Innovation, HP
Supporting resources
About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact
on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest
technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing,
personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the
convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure,
context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about
HP is available at http://www.hp.com.
(1) "World
Malaria Report 2010," World Health Organization, 2010.
© 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information
contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not be
liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
HP
Elisa Greene, +1-650-857-4958
elisa.greene@hp.com
or
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© Business Wire 2011
