Wireless Medical Messaging for Patient Care
An article in the BBCi today highlighted the use of text messaging to remind patients to take their medicine in Cape Town South Africa. According to the article the WHO mandates that all TB sufferers need to be observed by a physician to make sure that they receive their medication. For most patients, this means a lengthy trip to the clinic but for those participating in this program, a text message comes via cellphone that reminds them to take their medication.
I recalled a related story in the current JAMIA (Journal of the American Medical Informatics  Association) called “A Two-way Messaging System to Enhance Antiretroviral Adherence” that served the same purpose. An automated, two-way messaging system was used to send and receive medication reminders and confirmations improved medication adherence for HIV-positive patients, according to the study. Participants were given two-way pagers programmed with individual medication schedules. Patients received between three and eight messages per day reminding them to take their medication and follow their dietary guidelines, asking them about their drug adherence over the previous few days, or containing entertaining content, such as a quiz or a joke. Patients selected programmed multiple choice replies to send back to the researchers.
Coming soon to a TV near you!
SMS messaging has been widely used in Europe, Japan and South Korea but the adoption rate in the US has been slow – probably because phone users in the US either don’t want to pay per message or they would use computer-based instant messaging. But coming upon the US now is MMS or multimedia messaging that allows for audio, graphics, games and video. AT&T wireless has applied this technology to television viewing where they get viewers of Fox’s American Idol TV show to vote for their favorite contestant. Next they will be offering “subscribers with SMS-enabled wireless phones the ability to engage in text-based messaging activities such as gossip, games, jokes, quizzes and real-time chats with fellow American Idol fans, the contestants and possibly the judges, as well as other interactive experiences.”
”The goal of the program is to stimulate SMS usage in the U.S. where it is quite low compared to Europe and Asia. For example, 56% of all wireless users in Europe are using SMS where it is a $14 billion market, compared to the U.S. where SMS accounts for only several hundred million dollars in revenue” Source: AdAge.com
10:43:26 PM 
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