Aliv wants smart medicine push

Thu, Jul 20th 2017, 10:55 AM

The country's newest mobile service provider is eying the health services sector by toying with the idea of "smart medicine". Healthcare, Chief Aliv Officer Damian Blackburn joked, is in Aliv's DNA.
Blackburn, speaking at the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer's Confederation's "power breakfast" yesterday, said Aliv wants to have healthcare professionals practicing smart medicine, using their smartphones and Aliv's twin LTE networks.
He added that the idea of smart medicine was reawakened in his mind after Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis spoke of his goal of expanding telemedicine in the country.
"I did listen intently last week at the global symposium... central to his theme was what his government was looking to do around communication, which was telemedicine," Blackburn said.
"Absolutely we at Aliv stand ready to help the government with its agenda in telemedicine, but we do hope to change the agenda a little, we'd like to move it on to smart medicine... so, medicine from the smartphone.
"Nothing would make me more delighted than to see The Bahamas in five years time using the smartphone to its fullest capabilities from a medical angle. There are a lot of apps being developed right now for smartphone use that really are about preventative medicine, rather than reactive medicine."
Blackburn said his mother, as well as the mother of Aliv's chief financial officer, were both nurses. It was therefore easy for them both to decide that Aliv should help to advance a digital platform that would help nurses and doctors do their jobs.
"Nothing would delight me more than to see this generation of nurses not running around like I used to see my mother doing... reacting like I used to see my mother doing, reacting to medical problems," said Blackburn.
"I hope to see the medical professionals in the future, starting here in The Bahamas, using the full capabilities of smartphones with their patients to monitor and prevent things before they happen."
Blackburn ensured the room at the power breakfast that his company has already built two "next generation LTE" networks that are already primed for telemedicine and smart medicine.
Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands said The Bahamas has to move forward with technology advances.
"We have got to use the technology available in the world today in order to deliver all of these things to all of these people from Inagua to Abaco," he said.

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