A Review on the Use of Mobile Phone for Pervasive Healthcare Systems in Developing

Countries
Author: Surahyo Sumarsono
1
, Lutfan Lazuardi
2
, PMA van Ooijen
1

1
Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
2
Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Introduction: The key enabling technology of pervasive healthcare is a network-connected sensor
system, which may range from sophisticated dedicated sensors to simpler smartphone-based sensors
or even simpler smartphone-based applications accepting manual input from offline sensors.
Considering the cost-appropriateness of dedicated sensors for developing countries, we limit our
appraisals to smartphone-based pervasive healthcare systems, either in the form of smartphone-based
sensors or smartphone-based applications facilitating manual input from offline sensors.
Methods: This review paper is based on the literature identified through a search of PubMed, ACM
Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore, the main database that catalogue the research literature on mobile
phone-based pervasive healthcare. The literature in PubMed was searched for the following terms:
mobile phone, cellular phone and smartphone. The ACM and IEEE databases were searched
for combination of the term health, sensor, pervasive and the terms listed above. The purpose
of this paper is to provide a review of the mobile phone-based pervasive healthcare, rather than a
systematic review of efficacy evaluations, only illustrative examples of systems are presented.
Results: In this paper, we identified general analysis of pervasive healthcare in developing countries
compared to developed countries. There are similarities and differences in impact of healthcare
paradigm shift. The typical challenges in pervasive healthcare in developing countries are explored.
Some common traits for successful studies are described here. Based on the usage model of pervasive
healthcare, it can be concluded that the wellness category becomes the most preferable services in
both developing and developed countries. Based on category of diseases, diabetes and hypertension
have the highest need of pervasive healthcare services.
Conclusion: The implementation of pervasive healthcare in developing countries has some
differences compared to developed countries. Based on usability assessments in developing countries,
the impact of pervasive healthcare can be measured.

References:
J. E. Bardram, A. Mihailidis, and D. Wan, Pervasive Computing in Healthcare. CRC Press, 2007.
C. Orwat, A. Graefe, and T. Faulwasser, Towards pervasive computing in health care - a literature
review., BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak., vol. 8, p. 26, Jan. 2008.
J. G. Kahn, J. S. Yang, and J. S. Kahn, Mobile Health Needs and Opportunities in Developing
Countries, Health Aff., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 252258, 2010.