m-care — mobile access to primary care patient information at the point of care

Members of Townhead Surgery, Irvine, are pioneering dial-up EPRs and their success has been highly commended by the judges of this year's Healthcare IT Effectiveness Awards. David Brazier, Dr Jim Campbell and Martin Irving describe the first stages of this pilot project of the Scottish Executive Health Department.

KEYWORDS: MOBILE ACCESS, PRIMARY CARE, WIRELESS, WAP, GSM, ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORD, INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN.

ABSTRACT
Primary care information is increasingly stored and accessed on computers. This information is generally only available, however, on fixed local systems. The m-care project provides healthcare professionals with secure access to information wherever they are, using cheap, simple-to-use, off-the-shelf equipment including WAP mobile phones. The project has already demonstrated that this technology provides an effective solution and further evaluation is under way.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2001; 18(3): 23–5