Vodafone to launch mobile health unit

Vodafone has announced that it will establish a new mobile health unit in Newbury to develop mobile healthcare solutions.

Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone, told an audience at the Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit in London that he believed that mobile technology has a significant role to play in the provision of healthcare.

He said by providing the right technology to professional healthcare providers, workflows could be simplified and statistical analysis and record keeping could be improved.

Colao added: “The new mobile health unit will focus solely on mobile healthcare solutions and will work with other organisations including pharmaceutical companies and government organisations, which can help us fully understand the need of healthcare professionals.”

He said that he believed that Vodafone’s technology will provide better service and improved quality of life in both mature and emerging markets.

“Very often we focus a lot on technology and what it can do without fully understanding what the needs are.

“My recommendation is that we need to start listening to governments and pharmaceutical companies about what is really going to make a difference and if that’s just informing or training healthcare providers then that’s fantastic. What is clear is that there’s a pressing need for a re-evaluation of how we deliver healthcare services,” Colao added.

A spokesperson for Vodafone told E-Health Insider that the new unit will consist of a team of around ten people and will open at the beginning of 2010.

Earlier this year, Vodafone signaled its commitment to mobile healthcare by partnering with The Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations Foundation to create the Mobile Health Alliance, which aims to maximise mobile health in the developing world.

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