Philippines - Mobile health project named award finalist

SHINE or Secured Health Information Network and Exchange, the flagship Health program of Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), which provides better access to health care services in the Philippines, has gained international recognition once again.

A hosted electronic health information and referral system accessible by a Java-capable phone or a computer with Internet connectivity, Shine was recently shortlisted at the LTE Awards 2012 under the Most Significant Development for Commercial LTE Network by an Operator category. Smart is the only Philippine telco to have entered the finals, and the first and only wireless services provider in the country with a working LTE network.

Smart launched its pilot LTE site in April 2011 in Boracay Island and has since fired up over thirty LTE sites in various Philippine locations, including Iloilo City and Quezon City, where Smart’s Shine services are available. LTE, shorthand for Long-Term Evolution, is the world’s fastest mobile broadband technology capable of download speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Shine enables doctors, nurses, and midwives to record patient encounters, easily find and retrieve patient records, remind patients and healthcare providers, facilitate referrals among facilities, and more efficiently generate government required reports.

It is now being used in public primary, secondary, and tertiary care facilities in Central Philippines and National Capital Region, with 34 city health centers and rural health units and 19 major referral hospitals involved.

The service–being a product of a public-private collaboration of Smart, the Department of Health, local government units and non-governmental organizations–is designed and implemented considering the needs of different players in the healthcare ecosystem.

Shine is currently being used for a wide range of health conditions and supports many health services such as those associated with pre-natal, post-partum, immunization, family planning, sick children, tuberculosis, trauma and a range of chronic conditions.

Just last month, Shine received the Best Community Telecom Project at the 15th Telecom Asia Awards held in Bangkok, Thailand. Early this year, Shine was also nominated at the 17th Global Mobile Awards of the GSM Association in Barcelona, Spain under the Best Mobile Health Innovation category. (PR)

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