m-Health Solutions (mHS) is a Canadian company in the emerging field of mHealth technology, a term describing the use of mobile devices for the collection and distribution of health data, remote delivery of care, and near real-time monitoring of patients. mHS provides doctors and patients with an efficient diagnosis system for detecting cardiac arrhythmia.

To speed up the process of diagnosing or ruling out cardiac arrhythmias, mHS developed the Mobile Cardiac Arrhythmia Diagnostic Service (m-CARDS), a solution for family doctors, internists and cardiologists. When a patient reports suspicious symptoms, the doctor can initiate the test right away, without sending the patient to the hospital or a specialist.

During the initial visit, the doctor attaches two electrodes to the patient and sends a requisition form to mHS. Within 24 hours, a kit arrives at the patient’s house or office containing an Event Loop Recorder (ELR) which records cardiac activity for up to two weeks, a BlackBerry smartphone and user instructions.

Once attached, the ELR starts to transmit data via Bluetooth® to the BlackBerry device. The BlackBerry smartphone sends the information to mHS’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server at its diagnostic center where it is interpreted by cardiac technologists. The company also uses the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to manage, control and push software updates out to the devices.

Results are monitored constantly and mHS’s cardiologists use a secure portal to make a diagnosis from virtually anywhere in the world. The cardiologists are able to electronically sign off on the results, which are then faxed to the referring doctor within approximately 24 hours of the patient completing the test for follow-up care.

“The investigation and diagnosis of cardiac issues was often a drawn out process,” said Sandy Schwenger, Co-owner and CEO of mHS. “After seeing your family doctor, it could take days or weeks to see a specialist and several more weeks for diagnosis. With m-CARDS, the patient is typically hooked up within 24 hours of seeing their family physician and the average time to diagnosis is eight days, meaning patients may be treated sooner.”

m-CARDS has been well-received among doctors and patients. Currently, 400 family physicians throughout Ontario have chosen to use m-CARDS to arrive at a diagnosis for nearly 2,500 patients.

“We believe this BlackBerry solution is just the beginning in helping to improve the diagnosis, treatment and management of cardiac diseases and disorders,” said Schwenger. “We are already in the process of researching and developing a system to help monitor these patients after they’ve had a heart attack, during rehab or when they’re back at home.”

How do you use mobile technology for managing your personal health? Tell us in the comments section below.

Qubit.tv is an Argentinean telecom company that offers video-on-demand services for movies and documentaries. Founded in 2011, the company initially offered its services exclusively through its website. After identifying that users between the ages of 18 and 34 increasingly use their mobile devices to watch movies, Qubit.tv determined that they could grow their business by offering a wide variety of free and pay-per-view movies on mobile devices.

In order to expand its market reach, the company deployed Qubit.tv, a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application available for download from the BlackBerry App World storefront. Developed by Sondeos, the application sends an email confirmation to users who download it and register, and then allows them to run the app and choose from a menu of free and pay-per-view movies.

Qubit.tv’s app provides users with a variety of options: they can select a free movie, access over 700 movies available for rent, or subscribe to a pay-per-view service by paying a fixed monthly fee for on-demand mobile video access. Users can either watch movies directly on their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or enjoy a “home theater” experience by connecting the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to a television using an HDMI cable.

“We worked specifically with BlackBerry PlayBook tablets because the user video experience they offer is fun and user-friendly, and from a hardware and software point of view, it gives users an excellent video streaming experience,” said Javier Guevara, Marketing Manager at Qubit.tv.

Offering a mobile tablet application has helped Qubit.tv reach a younger and tech-savvy market segment. “Thanks to the app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Qubit.tv has been able to penetrate a highly competitive market and attract new customers,” said Guevara.

The application has also helped Qubit.tv provide a consistent user experience. “With the app for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, our customers have a more rewarding entertainment experience, with better transmission and minimal video interruptions, which we see reflected in the app’s high usability rates,” said Guevara. “Now, they can use their tablets to easily navigate and watch their favorite movies wherever they are.”

How does your company or organization use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for business? Share in the comments below.

This all brings us to an important point: mobile devices in enterprise, including tablets, need to be managed and secured in order to protect corporate data and reduce liability. It started with BlackBerry® smartphones and the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server solution, and here we are today with the variety of mobile devices exploding, leaving many IT departments in a scramble to keep track of it all. Of course, each IT department is on a different path, facing unique challenges and with unique priorities. But with the growth that’s already happened and the growth of tablets in enterprise that’s expected to come, sooner is better for crafting a strategy to support and manage tablets within your infrastructure.

BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion was designed specifically to meet this need – to reduce the headache of managing multiple platforms with separate tools, consoles, and licensing structures, as well as to ultimately provide a unified means of managing the influx of mobile devices in your workforce, be they smartphones or tablets, Android™, iOS®, or BlackBerry. So what does a managed and enterprise-ready tablet look like? Take a look at the graphic below for a perspective on the ideal enterprise-ready tablet.

Let’s review the picture that we’ve painted of a truly enterprise-ready and managed tablet. The device can be integrated with your existing infrastructure, work data is encrypted, personal data is partitioned separately, VPN and Wi-Fi® profiles can be pushed, IT can remotely manage the device, end user privacy is protected, and it’s loaded with all of the features that employees want in a mobile device.

What’s the most important feature of a “managed, enterprise-ready tablet” from your perspective? Share in the comments below.

These kinds of questions are leading field service organizations to re-evaluate their mobile tool set. IT departments, looking for ways to standardize technology platforms and reduce mobile infrastructure costs, are exploring the use of BlackBerry® devices in non-traditional environments – like field service operations, where BlackBerry devices often offer a surprisingly close fit at a significantly lower price point. With this premise in mind, industry analyst research firm ABI recently published a detailed whitepaper (commissioned by Research In Motion®) examining the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of traditional ruggedized devices versus BlackBerry handhelds.

Historically, BlackBerry smartphones have been thought of as strictly for white-collar workers, while ruggedized devices were strictly the domain of hard hats and steel-toed boots. However, both stereotypes are incorrect, and there’s a lot of grey overlap.

Field force workers, despite the rough-and-tumble stereotype, actually include diverse roles, including potato-chip delivery drivers, photocopier repair technicians, and restaurant inspectors. Clearly not all of these need fully ruggedized systems. Hence, organizations, in an effort to cut costs and standardize, are outfitting field staff with lower-cost, industry standard smartphones instead.

The ABI report looks at the factors that organizations considered in switching their field service teams from ruggedized mobile devices to smartphones – specifically BlackBerry smartphones. It analyzes the total cost and breakdown in various scenarios as shown below.

Source: ABI Research 2011: Comparing the TCO of BlackBerry Smartphones and Ruggedized Handhelds for Field Services Mobility

In addition to the quantitative measures, qualitative factors like ease of acquisition, upgrade management, application variety, development options, data security, and employee preference sweeten the pot.

All told, according to the study, the total costs and performance gains in switching from ruggedized devices to BlackBerry handhelds resulted in a five-year average TCO savings of up to 30%! Want to see where exactly the savings came from and how your organization might explore a similar evaluation? Click here to have a look at the report!

I’m sure your fellow IT leaders would love to hear about your experience in dealing with field service line of business managers. Have you integrated your field service teams’ requirements into your overall mobile strategy, or are you focused strictly on mobile execs? How do tablets like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet factor into this discussion? What special considerations or accommodations were required?