Harvard volunteers track Haiti injuries on iPhones

Health workers are doing some amazing things in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, and mobile technology is enabling them. Volunteer physicians and nurses from Harvard Humanitarian Initiative are carrying iPhones at a makeshift post-operative field hospital in Fond Parisien, Haiti, near the border with the Dominican Republic, to record patient information and document cases.

In a video posted Monday on YouTube, Dr. Elizabeth Cote, is seen speaking in French with a heavily bandaged woman, while entering information into her iPhone to document injuries to the patient and other members of her family. The information also helps track the whereabouts of displaced Haitian quake survivors.

According to the YouTube post, Cote is running iChart "digital medical assistant" software from Westlake Village, Calif.-based CareTools. "The developers were kind enough to customize the form in less than a week to support fields and info required to comply with international disaster data collection standards," the post says.

For more:
- watch this video (dialogue in French)
- check out Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's web page on Haiti earthquake response

Related Articles:
How health IT will help Haiti
Man trapped by Haiti quake treats own injuries with iPhone app