Mobile plays doctor – checks pulse, sends ambulance

BARCELONA – You will probably be surprised to have a call on your mobile “Sir, an ambulance is on the way.”

That’s a call you can expect anytime if you buy a new EPI Life mobile phone, which comes complete with mini electrocardiogram.

The new phone developed in Singapore takes your pulse when you press your fingers on a receptor, and sends the results to a 24-hour medical call centre.

EPI medical chief Dr. Chow U-Jin said at the mobile industry’s annual conference in Barcelona

“We think it’s a revolution. It has clinical significance, anywhere in the world you can use it as a phone but you are also able to transfer an ECG and get a reply.

“If you get a normal reply it will just be an SMS,” he added.

“If it’s severe, you get a call: ‘Sir, an ambulance is on the way’.”

EPI Life has three hospitals in Singapore, all of which carry the phone users’ history.

EPI Life costs $700 (516 Euros), the price of a top range Smartphone, and almost 2,000 of them have been on the market since 2010.

“The most obvious targets are people with heart disease,” Chow said.

You can choose from three packages offering 10, 30 or 100 tests a month depending on your health or nervous disposition.

There is now a mini $99 version with a smaller receptor that links via Bluetooth connection to your Smartphone, which is expecting to be launched soon in Spain and France.

The EPI Life is one of a series of mobile health plan revealed in Barcelona.

Many of the services depend on SMS or MMS messages that even older mobiles can receive.

Health Company, which covers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, sends medical information about sexuality, obesity, children’s health etc. to about 430,000 customers in Arab and English.

“You could also send a consultation through SMS,” said company vice president Fahad S. Al-Orifi.

“This SMS will go to our website where our doctor answers you to your mobile.”

Kazi Islam, chief executive of Grameenphone in Bangladesh mentioned “Mobile health is developing in poorer countries where it can play a crucial role”, In his country there are 156 million people and fewer than 3,000 hospitals but 66 million people have access to a mobile phone.

“Most women don’t have access to information of health. Seventy-five percent of women from 15 to 24 have never heard of STIs (sexually transmitted infections),” he said.

“With a simple SMS we are sending information to expectant mothers. This is a necessary help”.