Mobile Health Care: Case Mallu by Eksote in Finland

Mallu vehicle is a new type of mobile healt care service that is used in remote regions where these services don’t exist. The objective is to come with more advanced services to the locations that don’t have a dedicated health care center. All the targets for the project include:

  • To answer to the health care needs of people living far away from stationary service locations
  • To secure and develop the basic services of people in remote locations
  • To enhance wellbeing and health as well as to prevent illness
  • To support the health and wellbeing of the elderly and to support their living at home
  • To produce new and well-functioning mobile services

The customers include all community members, but the largest customer group is the elderly that have problems of travelling to the locations with stationary services. The first pilot tests in 2011 showed that as many as 65% of the customers where at the age of 65 or older.

The services

Mallu vehicle provides first nurse and pharmacy services. Also special health related theme days are organized with the vehicle.

The vehicle has a fixed route and the target is to visit every dedicated site every two weeks. The time the vehicle is in one location varies from an hour upwards, depending on the need. The nurses provide services like ear rinsing, stich removal, medicine recipes renewals, vaccinations and other injections. Also blood pressure monitoring, blood sugar level sampling and related advice are included and some quick sampling like INR is also performed in the van.

The broadband connection in the vehicle enables the usage of Eksote, the regional health district, patient registers so that all patient specific health issues can be monitored and reported online. Also some dental services can be included depending on the equipment installation in the car.

The connectivity solution

One of the main requirements for the services is an always online data connection that is guaranteed to function also in more remote locations. Goodmill managed router system meets the challenge. The vehicle is equipped with a router that includes up to four different commercial mobile broadband connections. Currently with the predefined route, Eksote uses two SIM-cards from the two main operators in Finland.

The system overview of Mallu health care vehicle

The solution brings all the health district’s data bases to the vehicle over secured VPN tunneling. The van is then like any other connection inside the hospital or health care center with similar rights and capabilities. This enables also more modern services like live video streaming from the van for doctor’s consultation whenever needed.

The costs

The total cost for the vehicle including the salaries, vehicle rental and IT infrastructure are at €115.000 per year. This means that with single customer’s cost from €52 to €104 per visit, the costs can be covered. This is obviously a very interesting value proposition for the service.

The summary

As the costs of health care are rising in general, a mobile service unit is a way to bring the services to more remote locations. A modern IT infrastructure is needed to support the service with needed access to databases for medical records, electronic prescription databases and so on. Goodmill managed router solution is a perfect building block and enabler for this. With always online broadband the imagination is only the limit to expand and upgrade the services even further.

Eksote provides health services, family and social welfare services, and services for senior citizens that promote the health, wellbeing and the ability of residents to function well in everyday life.

Goodmill Systems Ltd. is a Global market leader in critical broadband connectivity for vehicles. Goodmill brings you revolutionary multi-channel router solutions that enable outstanding Broadband connectivity ensuring constant data flow in demanding conditions where connectivity is critical.

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