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Amputee Screening via Cellphone Networking (ASCENT)

last updated Feb 10, 2012

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Smart Communications, Inc., Philippine General Hospital, Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2009
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor

Technology

Technology Used: 
Phones
Summary: 

ASCENT is a mobile phone application which enables doctors to evaluate cases and give advice on the use of prosthesis for amputees before seeing them, since many care-seekers are located in remote and underserved communities. Through ASCENT, city doctors can receive data including photos of the amputee via GPRS/3G and they can then immediately provide feedback to the health worker's cell phone.

Program goals/rationale: 

For people with physical disabilities, among the most important components of rehabilitation and support services that they need are prosthetic devices. In the Philippines, there are about 1.2 million amputee patients who are in need of these devices. The University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), in partnership with the Walking Free program of Physicians for Peace, has addressed this growing demand by providing low-cost prosthetic limbs. But screening patients for prosthetic evaluation requires amputees from the rural areas to travel long distances to get to the mission site, a feat that is both economically and physically challenging. Together with UP-PGH, Physicians for Peace, and SMART Communications, the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center (AJWCC) has developed an electronic system that can make amputee screening easier for both the patients and the doctors.

Key program components: 

The system is designed to have two components: a web application component and a mobile application component. The target users of the web application are city doctors who perform the actual evaluation of prosthetic limb requests. The intended users of the mobile phone, on the other hand, are rural health workers. The mobile device in this system would act as the primary source of input data. From the mobile phone, patient data, including stump photos, would be sent to a central server via GPRS/3G.

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