Android™ Medical Applications- Is it the future?

Recently, Children’s Hospital Boston had Press Release , detailing a set of core principals to guide the creation of a new health information infrastructure to better support the nation’s complex and evolving health system.

The document “Ten Principles for Fostering Development of an “iPhone-like” Platform for Healthcare Information Technology“, details the Ten core principles.

Below are those core principles along with Android platform features that support those principles:-

1. Technology platforms that support substitutable applications should be promoted.
   Android Platform source  is open source and open to modifications. The core components of the platform are substitutable and custom platform image can be created to suit one’s needs and promote the creation of, and enable the incremental adoption of, useful task-specific applications with low switching costs.
2. Messages and protocols for data exchange should be allowed to emerge on demand in a market-driven approach, and specified transparently at every level.
   Android Platform source being open source it is easy to add unique protocols for creation of a suite of wellness applications linked to everyday activities. Currently (as of Android 1.5- Cupcake edition) , bluetooth is not fully supported, but one can enhance the bluetooth source code to communicate with medical devices with bluetooth support (ex. glucose monitors with bluetooth support). Google has also released NDK(Native Development Kit) which provides tools that allow Android application developers to embed components that make use of native code in their Android applications. The NDK allows developers to implement parts of their applications using native-code languages such as C and C++. This can provide benefits to certain classes of applications, in the form of reuse of existing code and in some cases increased speed.
3. Protocols and application programming interfaces should allow the possibility of multiple platforms co-existing.
   The Android platform is open platform with open source. It is part of OHA(Open Handset Alliance), so it enjoys support of various mobile operators, handset manufacturers,semi-conductor companies, software companies and many more …. For more details on Open Handset Alliance, please visit http://www.openhandsetalliance.com.
4. Application programming interfaces should be open.
   Android Platform allows the development of plug-and-play applications and developers can reuse their knowledge of Java( most commonly used open source development language)
5. Substitutable application or platform vendors should not have control over what is installed on the platform.
   Even though Android platform is available from Google, it does not control what gets installed on the platform. It has removed its Google Maps API from Android platform and is available as separate API.
6. Application installation should be turnkey.
   Installation of Android Applications is easy and can be done without any knowledge of software programming. Currently, the applications can be installed using Android Market. The mobile phones with root access can install applications without Android Market.
7. The intellectual property of platforms and applications should be kept separate.
   Even though Android Platform source is open source, the applications developed by third party does not need to be open source and is not governed by open source agreement.
8. All applications should be removable and none should be required to run a platform.
   Android Platform is not vendor locked,  the core components can be substituted easily.
9. The platform should have a highly efficient delivery mechanism for applications.
   Android platform is not limited to mobile phones. The various netbook manufacturers are planning to release Android based netbooks by end of year and early next year.
10. Certification requirements for platforms and applications should be kept minimal to maximize substitutability.
    

Though the document’s title includes Iphone and the authors mention Iphone within their document,  Android platform is better suited for being the platform for Healthcare Information Technology.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Android Medical Applications, Development, Health Informatics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.