Physicians Interactive, a subsidiary of Skyscape.com provides mobile medical information, which together with the Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights have joined forces to launch Health eVillages. Together, the consortium brings mobile reference materials and decision support tools to healthcare professionals who don’t always have access to an updated library, or even medical texts.
Each mobile phone is equipped with the standard Merck drug guides. Users can then pick what is relevant to them – information geared toward physicians, nurses or a specialized area of medical practice. The information is sourced from Skyscape, which delivers up to 600 medical resources to mobile devices, including drug guides, medical alerts, journal summaries and references from more than 50 medical publishers. Skyscape also provides time-saving tools such as search, flow charts, medical calculators and cross-indexing.
To date, Health eVillages has conducted pilot projects in several regions, including Haiti, Kenya, Uganda and the Greater Gulf Coast. The group has donated approximately 40 devices as part of its pilot testing and anticipates donating 100 devices in the next year, as the group continues to refine the software and hardware needs of the devices.
Health eVillages is also looking at new ways to improve the devices, such as attaching a solar charging skin so they can be used in areas with no access to electricity or generators. The group is also in conversations with a major telecom company and mobile device manufacturer about partnering, and expects to have a hardware partner secured by the end of the calendar year. The partnerships will be critical to scaling up the Health eVillages project.
