"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," could be the slogan for some of the recent joint initiatives between the healthcare sector and wireless vendors.

Recently three wireless applications all taking a different approach to preventive healthcare have been announced: IBM and PatientKeeper are collaborating to prevent/reduce medication errors, which may lead to adverse drug reactions; Yahoo! and GlaxoSmithKline are addressing the needs of allergy sufferers; and HealthAmigo is offering WAP users access to first aid information.

IBM and PatientKeeeper
In a collaborative effort, IBM and PatientKeeper will offer a mobile healthcare platform to hospitals and other medical facilities to improve access to information in an effort to reduce medication errors and potential adverse drug reactions.

With PDAs running PatientKeeper’s software, clinicians will have access to patient care and administrative functions, such as ordering and reviewing lab test, prescribing medications, and accessing medical records. In addition, they will be able to share data will other healthcare practitioners, who are often stationed in remote or different departments.

For its part, IBM will assess the hospital’s infrastructure needs and install back-end systems as well as provide system integration services. PatientKeeper’s applications will run the IBM pSeries eServer and use IBM storage technology.

Yahoo! and GlaxoSmithKline Deliver Pollen Alerts
For the one in five people in Britain who suffer from hayfever, Yahoo! and GlaxoSmithKline have initiated a wireless alert service that will notify them of the pollen count via their text-based handsets.

"Using the mobile phone to deliver daily and regional pollen counts in text messaging format provides a much more practical and direct service to millions of hayfever sufferers who have previously relied on the more traditional and potentially limiting media channels, said Sebastian Mullin, a brand manager for the drug company.

The pollen count service, which offers 12 regional forecasts and one-to-ten ranking of pollen severity, can be accessed at www.yahoo.ca.uk/pollenalert

HealthAmigo’s WAP-Based First Aid Service
Launched this month in the U.K., HealthAmigo’s WAP-based service, PocketFirstAid, offers advice on minor first-aid situations.

The service includes an A-to-Z guide on emergency situations, and procedures to follow in each case, and details of classic first aid techniques. For expert advice, users can dial a premium rate phone number to speak with a doctor at anytime. Currently the service called PocketDoctor-On-Call is only available in the U.K.

According to Rob Wilson, HealthAmigo’s managing director, PocketFirstAid offers WAP users advice in anything from playground rough-and-tumble right through to CPR.

For more information:
http://www.patientkeeper.com/about/news/pressreleases/01_05_15.html
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/promo/pollenalert.html
http://www.healthamigo.com/about/