Design and Deployment of a Mobile-Based Medical Alert System

The use of wireless technology for health care delivery is having great impacts in the health care sector on a global scale. However, alert systems in medical institutions are rare. As a result of this, patients find it hard to keep track of scheduled meetings with medical personnel; they also find it difficult to keep track of prescribed medications. These could have adverse impacts on patients’ health, especially for those with chronic diseases. This chapter therefore, presents the design, deployment and evaluation of a mobile-based medical alert system (MAS) for managing diseases where adherence or compliance is paramount for effective treatment. The system alerts the patients and medical practitioners about information and emergencies via text messaging on handheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. It also allows users to receive scheduled appointment and medication updates that will facilitate their treatment processes. The prototype application is developed by the incremental software process model and runs on a GSM network.