Click Diagonistics: Mobile phones the best thing since sweet bread!

When it comes to the mobile phone it seems there is no limit to their use. ClickDiagnostics, is a mobile solution to diagnosing common illnesses in rural areas where there are few or no doctors. The process uses images and basic symptoms for diagnosis and at the moment is used for skin and eye illnesses. As you can imagine ClickDiagnostics has the potential to make a huge impact on rural communities across the global south.

The project is a joint one between MIT Media Labs and Harvard Univeristy and will soon be launched. The process works like this:

• Click-Health-Worker (CHW) captures image of condition and symptoms for a patient “case” using the mobile phone.
• CHW sends the “case” (image and voice recording of symptoms) to a centralized ClickDiagnostics database via the mobile network.
• ClickDiagnostics collects cases from the day and sends them to partner regional hospital/clinic for diagnosis via the Internet. Doctors review “cases” in batches and send diagnosis and/or treatment advice to ClickDiagnostics via the Internet.
• ClickDiagnostics transmits diagnosis and/or advice to CHW’s mobile phone via the mobile network.
• CHW conveys diagnosis and/or advice to patient

For those interested in following the progress of the project there is a FaceBook group "ClickDiagnostics".