Prospects and Problems of China's Mobile Medical System Deployment

Mobile medicine is the provision of medical services and information through the use of mobile communication technologies such as PDAs, mobile phones, and satellite communications. It provides an effective method for our country's medical and health services. With the shortage of medical human resources, we can solve medical problems in China through mobile medical care.

With the rapid development of communication technology, mobile medical care is becoming the next “gold mine” in the communications industry. He is a “sunrise industry” with great potential for all aspects of the communications industry chain such as mobile operators, medical device manufacturers, chip companies, and application developers.

The world-renowned GSM Association (GSMA) has announced that mobile technology will play an important role in the global healthcare service sector and predicts that the development of the mobile medical market in 2017 will bring US$23 billion in revenue. However, at present, the global mobile medical service is still in its infancy. Compared with developed countries, China's mobile medical technology and its practical application are even more backward.

In an interview with CCID, He Yusheng, an information expert group of the Ministry of Health and a member of the Health Information Standards Committee, said that at present, mobile medical care is still in its infancy. The mature application of domestic hospitals is mobile nurse workstations, that is, the application of nurses' handheld PDAs. It has a history of more than ten years and is relatively mature. However, the application of mobile doctors is still exploring. He Yusheng said, "In fact, the most typical mobile computing is the emergence of ipad and iphone, which solves the needs of human communication and simple mobile computing, especially life, games, Internet access, etc. But this demand is really applied to the industry. There is still a long way to go in demand.” For example, the IPAD is not convenient for doctors to carry, and the screen for presenting the image is not large enough. Many doctors do not like it. Therefore, the specific "mobile medical" landing, how to use? how to use? Still need the industry to further explore and research.

The industry believes that the deployment of mobile medical systems can be roughly divided into three parts: mobile information systems, mobile devices and wireless networks. All-round deployment is actually a re-engineering and optimization of the hospital information system, which may cause severe injuries and bring huge economic pressure to the hospital. Therefore, industry sources said that the current deployment of Chinese hospitals in mobile health only stays in the "promotion of mobile nurse workstations in the top three hospitals," and the proportion is even less than 10%. More medical units at and below the county level are less likely to be involved because of financial problems.

Although mobile medical care really brings great benefits for medical treatment, due to multiple issues such as funds, management, and policies, it still restricts the pace of its development. He Yusheng stated that mobile medical care is a very important development direction in the future. At present, relevant departments such as the Ministry of Health and industry associations are already studying these issues, but their development is a gradual process and requires the joint efforts of the industry chain.