System and method for medical surveillance through personal communication device

A method of operating a portable communication device, the method comprising:

• receiving a master configuration file by the portable communication device, the master configuration file comprising information sufficient for an initialization application to configure each application of one or more applications to execute on the portable communication device;
• executing the initialization application by the personal communication device, the executing the initialization application comprising providing, for said each application, configuration information corresponding to said each application based on the information in the master configuration file;
• executing said each application by the portable communication device, the executing said each application comprising said each application reading the configuration information corresponding to said each application and configuring the portable communication device in accordance with the configuration information corresponding to said each application;
• and
• performing a user diagnostic test using a first application of the one or more applications.