Conflict, war and medicine (catch all).

[Madhu]

More on cell phone medicine:

Yesterday was my first day at work on my new job with Urb.Im:

http://zenpundit.com/?p=12047

M-chanjo: Saving lives by mixing health care with mobile technology

The project's name is M-chanjo, and its aim is to harness the power of mobile phones — ownership of which has increased tenfold over the last ten years in Kenya — to keep patients up to date on their upcoming inoculations and on any outreach programs that are due to take place in the area.

and

Ushirika medical clinic, which serves several thousands of people monthly, aims to provide quality and affordable health care to the community members. In addition to the clinic's emphasis on curing illness, its staff also is deeply involved in disease prevention.

http://urb.im/nr/120729mc

I am sure the VA has similar pilot programs? Teaching hospitals in the states are very, very good at some things, but they move at the pace of a snail in terms of envisioning something really radical in terms of the delivery of health care. At least, that's been my experience. Much of it has to do with established stakeholders and the rest with a health care policy literature and attitudes stuck in the mid twentieth century. Like so many others. Just why is there such intellectual stagnation here, there, and everywhere, institutionally speaking? Or am I being unfair?

[davidbfpo]

Madhu asked:

Just why is there such intellectual stagnation here, there, and everywhere, institutionally speaking? Or am I being unfair?

This maybe trite, it is alas very accurate: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.

Curious that the example given is in Kenya, which has started a number of ground-breaking uses of IT, in finance and information sharing, alongside a paucity of public capital and increasing demand for public services.

We in the 'developed' world are rarely nimble, let alone quick. I cannot recall the details now, two sports stadium in London were recently built, one for a public body took years longer than another built for a privately-owned football club.