Mobile Phone Based Health Care Technology

According to the World Health Organization reports, chronic diseases are by far the leading cause of mortality in the world, which places an ever enormous strain on the world's healthcare industry. At the same time, mobile phones have been gradually adopted for solving some tough health care issues which are hard to tackle otherwise from conventional medical strategies. Since mobile phone is a most easily available electronic device which supports a variety of technical functions for human daily activities, efforts are being made to dig out its roles in the delivery of healthcare services and the promotion of personal health. At the present stage, application of mobile phone in health care is a combination of sensor and communicating technology. In this article, some most typical technical approaches leading to several patented health care mobile phone are outlined and digested. They include but are not limited to mobile phones combined or integrated with sensors, modified with additional functions, such as stethoscope, etc. Future prospects along this direction will be discussed. The advancement of science and technology in the field of health care has improved the quality of people's life significantly. However, chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, are by far the leading cause of mortality in the world, representing 60% of all deaths. Moreover, 80% of chronic disease deaths occur in low and middle income countries (1). In addition, in almost every country, the proportion of people aged over 60 years is growing faster than any other age group, as a result of both longer life expectancy and declining fertility rates. Most old people, around 70 percent, live in developing countries (2). The large amount of patients with chronic diseases and the increasing percentage of older adults, combined with the rising cost of medical procedures, will place an ever enormous strain on the world's healthcare industry, especially on that of the developing countries. The rapid adoption of powerful mobile computing devices brings up the creation of a new preventive healthcare opportunity. Mobile computing devices capable of collecting and processing sensor data acquired by wearable sensors and informing a user via audio or display panel, for instance, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, watches, etc. are emerging. Moreover, these devices are becoming smaller, lighter, and less expensive. Mobile computing devices are carried nearly everywhere by an increasing percentage of population, and therefore, can be used to deliver daily health information (3).