Hospitals embrace SMS technology

Text messaging is increasingly being used by UK hospitals to remind patients about outpatient appointments -- and could potentially save the National Health Service millions of pounds every year, reports CNN.

"It is also being used by sexual health clinics, allowing patients to get advice without having to talk face-to-face about sensitive issues including abortion, contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections.

Ealing Hospital in West London is one of the hospitals using short message service (SMS) to remind patients of routine outpatient and MRI scan appointments.

The hospital sends 20 texts per day, reminding the patients in advance of the date and time of their appointment.

Before using the text messaging system, the hospital relied solely on sending patients a letter as a reminder.

"It's still early days but anecdotal evidence suggests patients who would normally miss an appointment have subsequently turned up as a direct result of receiving a text message reminder."

Related articles:

-- Italy launches new health service via text messaging - The Health Telematic Network (HTN), leading telemedicine services company and TIM have launched a new service of health information via cellular phones.

-- Beep! You have a new SMS message - from the doctor - Mercury is a daily SMS update service offered by the intensive care unit of the National University Hospital (NUH) of Singapore, where doctors send an SMS to the patient's designated contact relative, to inform them on the patient's condition, how he or she was responding to treatment and what tests were scheduled later in the day, if any.

-- Texting can be bulimia aid - Text-messaging is increasingly being employed in health problems. Auckland University researchers have studied text messages as a way to help people give up smoking. Now a German study is trialling text-messaging with people suffering the eating disorder bulimia nervosa.

-- Mobile phones key role in a fully engaged healthcare scenario - According to a report published by the Cambridge based consultancy Wireless Healthcare, mobile operators could play a key role in providing public healthcare services.

-- Teenage Text help for the morning after - North Tyneside Primary Care Trust in the UK is running a one-year pilot project under which girls will be able to call or text a number 24-hours a day and will then be given advice and counselling by health experts.

-- AIDS monitoring by SMS - A South African clinic launches a campaign on a test basis, to ensure that HIV-positive patients are reminded to take their medication at regular intervals.

-- Concern over health appointment reminders by SMS - More and more hospitals in the UK are sending text messages to patients to remind them of appointments, and though this policy has been hailed as a success, one public health doctor in London is waving a red flag, claiming such a policy will leave poorer people out in the cold.

-- Hospital Appointments by SMS - Haukeland University Hospital is to use text messaging to schedule appointments with patients in an attempt to increase efficiency and save approximately six million NOK each year. The project is the first of it's kind in Norway.

-- Health test results by SMS - A doctor at South Manchester University Hospital in the UK is using text messaging to communicate with patients and cut down waiting times for medical results.

emily | 9:30 AM | Health Issues and SMS Alerts |
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