Richard's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘mobile apps’

Yesterday I visited Brac University in Dhaka.  Brac University is affiliated with Brac which is involved in sectors such as microfinance, education and health services to reduce poverty.

I had some interesting discussions on the use of mobile apps in rural villages for tracking various health information. There are many villages with limited electricity and limited telephone land lines. We discussed using mobile apps to track information for various topics including TB, cholera and disabilities.  Therap is already tracking and storing much of the information for agencies using our application in the US.

A couple of interesting notes on concerns that were raised. One was that where to store the data is a significant issue. It is not that difficult to create an app (at least for programmers) which asks relevant questions regarding a specific disease or condition.  The challenge is where to put that data.  If someone is in a rural village in Bangladesh (or anywhere in the world) it is not useful to have data just on a local cellphone. It doesn’t allow public health officials to spot trends or aggregate data.  So you have to get it to someplace like Therap that has equipment to receive and store data in a usable format.  Otherwise mobile phones aren’t much more useful than pen and paper which is how data is collected now.

Even beyond the capability to store the data is doing it so only the right people can access, enter, change and view the data. That is something Therap has significant expertise in given our compliance with HIPAA and other regulations.

I look forward to further discussions on this issue. We hope to work on some pilot programs with appropriate NGOs in Bangladesh on these issues.

I saw a prototype yesterday of a mobile app for T-logs.

When we launched Therap in 2003, many agencies questions whether computers would be in group homes. Now DSP’s are carrying cellphones which are often in effect mini-computers with android or other systems.

I look forward to seeing how this increase in the capability for mobile data entry and mobile viewing of data will improve service delivery and reduce costs.

Today I saw what I considered an early beta version of two mobile apps for Therap. At least compared to many of the mobile apps that my kids have on phones or the ipad.

One allowed access to Justin’s blog. The other allowed easy search in Therap Help and Support.

Apparently there is some debate about whether that would technically be considered  a mobile app for Therap given that our product is essentially Hipaa compliant electronic documentation with all sorts of rights and access.

While we are working on mobile documentation apps for many of our modules, I feel that an app to easily see justin or my blog on a cellphone is still an app – although probably of limited and less use than documenting T-logs.