Mobile Technologies for Delivering Healthcare in Remote, Rural or Developing Regions

This edited book explores the use of mobile technologies such as phones, drones, robots, apps, and wearable monitoring devices for improving access to healthcare for socially disadvantaged populations in remote, rural or developing regions. This book brings together examples of large scale, international projects from developing regions of China and Belt and Road countries from researchers in Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, Norway, Japan, Spain, Thailand and China. The chapters discuss the challenges presented to those seeking to deploy emerging mobile technologies (e.g., smartphones, IoT, drones, robots etc.) for healthcare (mHealth) in developing countries and discuss the solutions undertaken in these case study projects.

This book brings together joint work in mHealth projects across multiple disciplines (software, healthcare, mobile communications, entrepreneurship and business and social development). Bringing together research from different institutions and disciplines, the editors illustrate the technical and entrepreneurial aspects of using mobile technologies for healthcare development in remote regions. Chapters are grouped into five key themes: the global challenge, portable health clinics, sustainable and resilient mHealth services, mHealth for the elderly, and mHealth for chronic illnesses.

The book will be of particular interest to engineers, entrepreneurs, NGOs and researchers working in healthcare in sustainable development settings.

Pradeep Kumar Ray is the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, China, and currently leads the international initiative mHealth for Belt and Road region (mHBR) involving more than ten countries. Pradeep works on a range of innovative projects on eHealth and mHealth (jointly with industry, governments and global bodies like WHO, EU and IEEE) in eHealth and mHealth across the Asia Pacific region. He founded the WHO Collaborating Centre for eHealth in UNSW-Australia. He also co-founded IEEE Healthcom, premier international event held annually since 1999.

Naoki Nakashima is a professor and Director at the Medical Information Center of Kyushu University Hospital, and also a visiting professor of National Institute of Informatics, Japan. He is the leader for mHealth for Parkinsons Disease in mHBR. He is vice-president of the Japan Association for Medical Informatics (JAMI). He is also a founding member (2003) and past-vice director (2012) of the Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC) in Kyushu University.

Ashir Ahmed is an associate professor at the department of advanced information technology in Kyushu University, Japan and director of Global Communication Centre (GCC) projects at Grameen Communications, Bangladesh. Ashir leads the Portable Health Clinic project in mHBR. His research aims to produce and promote ICT-based social services for remote communities in the world.

Soong-Chul Ro is an associate professor and leader of the Bangladesh Challenge Project at the Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI), People's Republic of China. He also leads the Global Challenge project of mHBR. He has created and overseen several CSR projects, in partnership with NGOs and private companies. He is an honorary member of the Korean Diakonia Welfare Foundation.

Yasuhiro Soshino is the director of the International Medical Relief at Japan Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital, Japan. He also leads the Drones project at mHBR. He works closely with governments and industry in reaching medical relief in disaster affected areas using drones and has extensive experience in leading Red Cross disaster relief missions following natural disasters. He has been working on a range of disaster relief technologies including photovoltaics, IoT and drones.