Mobile API’s help save lives across Australia

Australian Red Cross delegates attended an international seminar in June this year, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the formation of this respected organisation. The seminar was held on the site of the Battle of Solferino in Italy where the concept of the Red Cross, a cross-cultural, international organisation was born. The seminar focused on global and local challenges such as HIV/AIDS, climate change, migration and discrimination. The Australian Red Cross organisation has a lot to be proud of; they were one of the first countries in the world to roll out mobile CPR instructions.

CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure performed on people suffering cardiac arrest. The purpose of the procedure which involves alternating chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing is to keep the heart pumping and oxygen flowing until emergency care arrives. It sounds simple enough but it is easy to forget where exactly to put your hands or the sequence of breaths and compressions and this is where the mobile CPR download comes in very handy.

Launched a year ago, Australian Red Cross CEO, Robert Tickner stated at the time that ‘this groundbreaking technology (would) literally put the ability to save a life into the hands of all Australians with a mobile phone.’ Simply by sending a SMS text message to 199 51515 CPR, anyone can access the information that they need when they need it.

The innovative mobile application provides clear instructions on how to perform CPR as well as supplying an animated video accompaniment. Developed in conjunction with Multi-Ed Medical and Ericsson, this application is just one of many amazing uses that the mobile phone and text messaging technology has been put to in the medical field. As Colin Evans, Director of Multi-Ed Medical says, “(this) will empower ordinary people with extraordinary knowledge.” Text messaging applications have found a niche in emergency and medical services around the world.

Hospitals and medical organisations are making use of bulk SMS to diagnose and interact with patients. Bulk text messaging is also a cost-effective way to provide healthcare information and the availability of two-way text messaging platforms means that specific queries can be dealt with depending on the trigger word sent to the service. Appointment reminders, medication notifications, confirmation of booking times – all of these are made simple by using mobile technology.

One of the most promising medical trials involving text messaging was a pilot study conducted on tuberculosis patients in South Africa last year. Text messaging was used to monitor patients in remote locations. Patients were supplied with their medication in a rather special container. The small pill bottle contained sophisticated technology that would send a text message to a central server when the bottle was opened to verify that patients had taken their medication. If the message was not received at the designated time, the patient was then contacted and reminded to take the pills!

The point of all this is that we have not even begun to tap into the potential of mobile applications. Text message is an extremely popular, simple and reliable method of communicating. The scope for the application of text messaging across a wide variety of industries is enormous and mobile developers need to think out of the box when it comes to building applications on this messaging technology.

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