Smart app to screen amputees in Bulacan

MANILA, Philippines - Some 30 health workers in Barangay Graceville in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan can now use their mobile phones to screen amputee patients in need of prosthetics. Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) recently conducted a training on the use of ASCENT (Amputee Screening via CEllphone NeTworking), an application that allows health workers to key in patient information on a cell phone and send the data to a centralized Web-based database via multimedia message, along with photos taken with the cell phone camera. The application, developed by the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center for Smart, enables doctors to evaluate cases and give advice on the use of prosthesis for amputees even before seeing the patients. ASCENT is Smart’s contribution to the Walking Free Program of the PfP-Philippines and partner UP-PGH. Since 2005, the program has been serving indigent amputees nationwide through screening and prosthesis service missions, and by making prosthesis more affordable to the beneficiaries.