title: Mobile phone consultation for community health care in rural north India.
abstract: We conducted a study to ascertain the acceptability and feasibility of consultation by mobile phone in a rural area of northern India. The mobile phone number of a community physician was advertised to the general public and people were invited to telephone at any time for a medical consultation. Details of the calls received were recorded. During a seven-month study, 660 calls were received. The mean call duration was 2.7 min. Eighty percent of calls were made by men. Forty-eight percent of calls were made during office hours. A total of 417 (63%) calls were for seeking advice, 146 (22%) were for outpatient follow-up, 23 (4%) were for seeking appointments and the remaining 74 (11%) for other reasons. The most common problems were skin, respiratory, mental health and sexual problems. Of the 387 callers who were interviewed at follow-up, 302 (78%) stated that they had followed the advice provided. Of these, 91% found the advice very helpful in managing their health problems. About 96% of users wished to continue to use the service in future. The majority of calls made were of a primary care nature which could easily be dealt with by phone. The concept of using mobile phones for medical consultation seemed to be acceptable to people in rural Haryana.
authors: Department of Community Medicine, MLN Medical College, Allahabad University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. drsuryabali@yahoo.com
authors: Surya
authors: S
authors: Bali
authors: Amar Jeet
authors: AJ
authors: Singh
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*