Mayo Clinic, Digital Cyclone Launch Health Application for Wireless Phones

Thursday, February 22, 2007

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic has collaborated with Digital Cyclone, Inc., a Minnesota-based subsidiary of Garmin, Ltd., to launch a software application that delivers an array of health information and tools directly to cellular phones. The Mayo Clinic InTouch™ wireless health program will be available in February on Alltel Wireless, Sprint, and other major carriers' wireless phones.

"Mayo Clinic's mission has three elements: quality patient care, research to help cure diseases and education," says Roger Harms, M.D., a Mayo Clinic obstetrician and gynecologist and the medical editor-in-chief for MayoClinic.com. "Our education function is not limited to training the next generation of physicians and other medical providers, though. We also see providing health information to consumers as essential. Through this new project we're able to make it available to them wherever they are."

Using Mayo Clinic InTouch, wireless phone subscribers have a rich health resource directly on their phone. A few keystrokes give consumers immediate access to:

• Step-by-step first aid tips
  
• A Symptom Checker that provides self-care guidelines or advises emergency care for more than 45 common symptoms in adults and children
  
• More than 100 short health news videos
  
• Timely health alerts and drug watches.

In addition, subscribers may enter their city or ZIP code to search for nearby emergency and urgent care facilities from a list of over 3,800 accredited providers. If the cell phone has global positioning system (GPS) capability, it automatically finds nearby accredited facilities without typing the city or ZIP code. The care center's information is displayed in list format and shows the facility's name, address and estimated distance.

Content for the Mayo Clinic InTouch program primarily comes from MayoClinic.com and Mayo Clinic's Medical Edge syndicated news products. Customers can subscribe to the Mayo Clinic InTouch program for $2.99 per month. A list of wireless carriers and phones supported is available at www.digitalcyclone.com.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.