DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE TELEMEDICINE SYSTEM WITH MULTI COMMUNICATION LINKS TO REDUCE MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE

摘要

This paper describes the prototype of a mobile telemedicine system that has been developed for rural area. The system consists of a mobile telemedicine unit which is realized as a portable telemedicine unit. The unit may be placed in an ambulance or at community health centres. Conjunction with the mobile telemedicine unit is a base unit that can be located in a refferal hospital. The developed prototype is focused to be applied for reducing Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in rural areas of Indonesia. Health services which can be operated on the system are patient's data recording and reporting, teleconsultation, telediagnostic and tele-education. To overcome transmission link stability problem in rural areas, multi communication links is employed to support data transmission. User can transmit data via GSM, CDMA, VHF radio, or internet. While the patient's vital signs that can be monitored are ECG, BP, FHR, and temperature. The system has been technically tested. The results are very promising. The next step is to set up a testbed that covers community health centres in Sukabumi areas, and to operate the system for emergency situation in an ambulance. Evaluation of the system will be focused on scenarios application, and clinical test.