Mobile operator Turkcell is linking up with Istanbul University to launch what is claimed to be the country’s first remote monitoring service that uses mobile technology to link patients with their doctors. A 12-month pilot of the new service will begin in May initially with 500 patients chosen by the university’s medical faculty. The service will enable data collected from devices such as diabetes monitors to be conveyed via Bluetooth to a patient’s mobile handset and then uploaded via the cellular network to their doctor.

Although only starting as a pilot the service could have a more widespread rollout according to comments made by  Yunus Söylet, the rector of Istanbul University, reported by local publication Today’s Zaman. Söylet expects the intiative to be deployed across Turkey once the partners can secure a deal with the country’s Social Security Institution (SGK) who will pay for patients to have the new service. Full implementation around the country would take around five years said Turkcell CEO Süreyya Ciliv. The partners will share the results of its pilot with SGK after which they hope to strike a deal. However in the meantime patients have to pay for the service themselves including the cost of a health monitor supplied by Turkcell. According to the publication, this is the first remote health monitoring service in Turkey.

Striking a deal with SGK is key to the success of the initiative.  Mobile operators need to find a party willing to pay for remote patient monitoring services if they are to be deployed widely. Patients are unlikely to pay for their own treatment. Other candidates include bodies such as Turkey’s SGK, public or private healthcare bodies or insurance companies.

Turkcell’s Ciliv had an innovative take on a possible market for the new patient monitoring service. He predicted the service could provide a revenue source for Turkcell from foreign patients, a kind of mobile health roaming. He said Turkey could act as “a healthcare tourism destination” whereby foreign patients came to Turkey for treatment and then used mobile technology to stay in touch with their doctors after they returned home.

The forthcoming pilot will involve patients with at least one chronic illness including diabetes, arrhythmia, high blood pressure, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).