A cost-effective solution for telemedicine in rural health care using mobile ad hoc networks

Information and communication technology carries with it enormous potential for transforming poor people´s lives, connecting them to markets and improving their access to government services. Health care organizations are also utilizing different information system technologies that can be employed to reduce administrative costs, make organizations more competitive, and ultimately provide better care to patients. However, most of the existing health care solutions require a huge initial investment and require the end-users to be technology-aware enough to use them. Developing economies like those in Latin America, Africa and Asia cannot afford to deploy such kind of real-time technologies for its masses because this would not be financially feasible. This paper discusses the problems associated with the implementation of such solutions in the rural sector of such economies. Also, a new system has been proposed which makes use of the wireless ad hoc networking for rural health care management. It has a lot of attractive features like ease of setup, use, and maintenance; and, most important, relatively very low cost for both users and providers. Also a case study of a similar kind of successful e-governance project in India, Bhoomi is shown which provides support for the promises associated with the proposed system.