Pakistan project wins at the NFC Forum Global Competition 2009

Pakistan project wins at the NFC Forum Global Competition 2009     

 

Nokia Pakistan and Indus Hospital project was named the top slot in Monaco

 

Karachi, 19^th May 2009 - The NFC Forum (http://www.nfc-forum.org), a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, has announced the winners of the NFC Forum Global Competition 2009 (http://www.nfc-forum.org/competition). The winning entries were named at an awards ceremony held at WIMA in Monaco (http://www.wima-nfc.com).

 

WIMA is a Conference and Exhibition based in Monaco, presenting the 3rd NFC Business & Technical Developers Summit. WIMA hosted the NFC Forum Global Competition Finals & Awards Ceremony. WIMA is the fastest growing industry event for the NFC community, covering all aspects of the business, technical, and developer chain for both established players and newcomers to the technology.

In the competition, developers in a Commercial Track vied for the honor of having their solutions named "The Best NFC Service of the Year 2009," while a Research Track recognized “The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2009." First, second, and third-place winners in each track were chosen by a jury composed of senior professionals and recognized experts from academia and sponsoring companies.

The winners were selected from 20 finalists, who were selected earlier from 52 entries from 21 countries and four continents. The competition finalists demonstrated their entries at the Global NFC Business & Technical Developers Summit at WIMA. Winners in each track were awarded cash prizes. First-place winners received 5000 euros, second-place 1500 euros, and third-place 1000 euros.

The first-place winner in the Commercial Track is Interactive Research & Development of Pakistan, for "Interactive Alerts for Childhood Pneumonia," which is a real-time patient tracking and referral system for use in low-resource settings. The system is currently being used for a pneumonia surveillance study in young children in Karachi, Pakistan. Nokia Pakistan and The Indus Hospital Research Centre jointly collaborated for successful implementation of INTERACTIVE ALERTS in Karachi.

 

Upon this achievement, Imran Khalid Mahmood, Country General Manager Nokia Pakistan said, “It is great to know that IRD has won the NFC Award for "The Best NFC Service of the Year 2009". Nokia Pakistan feels proud of its partnership with Indus Hospital and IRD to promote the Interactive Alerts system for monitoring of pneumococcal diseases in Karachi. Nokia 6131 NFC phone is playing a key role in successful implementation of Interactive Alerts system and extending timely aid to children suffering from pneumonia. It is heartening to know that something meaningful has come out of a step that Nokia Pakistan took to alleviate the cases of childhood pneumonia in Karachi.”

 

The Interactive Alerts system has been specifically developed to use the Nokia 6131 NFC phone for childhood pneumonia surveillance and referral in low-resource settings, although it can be easily extended to other diseases. At the time of the 6-week vaccination visit, children are given a radio frequency ID (RFID) tag in the form of a traditional bracelet. This tag provides a unique ID to the child, and parents are advised and encouraged to take sick children to participating general practitioner clinics or general hospitals in the program. At each encounter, the Nokia 6131 NFC phone is used to scan the child’s tag. Pertinent immunization, clinical and laboratory data is collected and posted to the server via GPRS in real-time, and can be viewed over a secure website.

 

The innovativeness of this approach is that it helps overcome the challenges of disease tracking and patient referral in settings where medical records and referral systems do not exit. The RFID bracelet provides unique identification, allowing health workers to verify identity and view basic medical records, and respond to emergencies quickly.

 

IRD has established pneumonia surveillance in Karachi in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), the Program for Appropriate Technologies in Health (PATH) and the Indus Hospital. The objective of collecting this data is to provide policy makers in Pakistan and in the region the information required for introducing appropriate and new vaccines against pneumonia for children.

 

Interactive Alerts was co-developed by IRD’s health informatics team, led by Omar Allawala (Director of Information Technology) and Julia Irani (IT Project Manager),and a team of researchers and students from the Next Billion Network at MIT. The MIT team proposed the idea of using the Nokia NFC phones, and produced an initial design and working prototype, from which the IRD team then developed the final product.

The competition's goal is to promote the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services. The Commercial Track is for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want. The Research Track is open to the academic community, including university student teams and institutions.

For both commercial and research developers, the NFC Forum Global Competition is more than just an opportunity to win an award. Finalists and winners may look forward to global media coverage, increased awareness among attending industry leaders and venture capitalists, and opportunities to forge partnerships and share ideas.

Nokia and WIMA are Platinum sponsors of the competition. Silver sponsors are INSIDE Contact less and Stollmann E+V GmbH. Equipment sponsors are Over-C and ViVOtech.

About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility, and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide equipment, solutions, and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

About Near Field Communication Technology
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions between electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contact less transactions, access digital content, and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch.

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology provides global interoperability of contact less identification and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters. The underlying layers of NFC technology are based on ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards. NFC technology is supported by the world's leading communication device manufacturers, semiconductor producers, network operators, IT and services companies, and financial services organizations. NFC is compatible with hundreds of millions of contact less cards and readers already deployed worldwide.