TODAY, there are mobile apps for almost everything. From monitoring the weather and managing daily expenses to booking flights, finding a taxi, and making hotel reservations – these apps are meant to improve the quality of people’s lives. But for the doctors and volunteers of Physicians for Peace (PfP) who go on medical missions, there is a simple mobile app that helps them collect data and screen amputees in need of artificial legs or feet.
Dubbed ASCeNT (Amputee Screening via CEllphone NeTworking), the mobile app was developed by Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center (AJWCC). With the ASCeNT app, health volunteers are able to record patient data of an amputee and take photos of the amputations using a mobile phone or tablet. By connecting to the Internet, data are then sent to a website where PfP doctors can view and organize the patient records and even provide recommendations online.
Recently, more amputees were given hope to be able to walk freely again as PfP conducted another medical mission in Iligan where more than 110 amputees came to be screened. The medical mission was organized by the Inner Wheels Club of Iligan.
“Malaki ang natulong ng ASCeNT dahil mas napabilis ang pag-assess sa mga patients. Natutuwa din ang mga patients dahil mabilis ang assessment at hi-tech, mas accurate (ASCeNT is a great help to us. Because of the app, we are able to better assess our patients. Even our patients were delighted with ASCeNT because it made the screening faster. They found it high-tech and more accurate),” shared Nibram Ensan, one of the volunteer physical therapists during the medical mission.
Since data collected by the app are aggregated to a website, ASCeNT does not only help improve the patient screening process, it also helps build an amputee registry, which becomes basis for developing and implementing specific health services for these patients. Last June, the Philippine Health Insurance System included prosthesis in the list of its reimbursable benefits because of the data gathered through channels such as ASCeNT.
The mobile development for the initiative is supported by Smart, one of the country’s early advocates of mobile health (mHealth) or the use of mobile technologies to improve the delivery of healthcare.
Launched in 2010, PfP has been able to screen more than 1,000 amputee patients all over the country using ASCeNT. The project was a recipient of the Galing Likha-Kalusugan Awards from the Health Market Innovations in the Philippines in 2011. The Android version of the app is available for download in the Google Play Store.
Disclaimer
Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.
