And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same - Nelson Mandela |
| A call for help: Using cellphones to improve healthcare delivery |
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A simple cellphone, something most of us carry around in our pockets, can help to bring quality healthcare to developing areas. In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been increasingly used to further socio-economic development. ICT refers to methods for communications, as well as techniques for storing and processing information, for example with a computer or cellphone. Especially in developing countries, governments and NGOs are using these technologies to improve, among other things, education, participatory democracy, access to justice and healthcare. Growing African mobile market
In Africa, cellphones are especially useful for this purpose as it has a rapidly growing market on the continent. According to EPROM (Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles): “Cellphone usage in Africa is growing almost twice as fast as any other region and jumped from 63 million users two years ago to 152 million today.”
In South Africa there are more cellphone users than land line users. Even though broad band in this country is still limited and expensive, cellphones have made easy and affordable access to the internet possible for thousands of people. In A Country Case Study for e-Health in South Africa, Maurice Mars and Chris Seebregts writes that mobile phone penetration in the country is estimated at 75%. “It is likely that mHealth will play an ever increasing role in medical informatics, telemedicine, surveillance and healthcare education in Africa.” The use of cellphones to improve healthcare is referred to as mHealth and can take various forms:
Awareness and prevention
Collecting data and diagnosis
Cellphones are used to collect data in the field to “gauge the effectiveness of existing policies and programs and to shape new ones”. According to the report, mHealth for Development, It is better than a paper survey that has to be submitted manually. Because data can be sent quickly via mobile phones it is also ideal for tracking diseases and outbreaks. This can play a role in containing such outbreaks. In rural areas, where access to hospitals and specialists is limited or non-existent, healthcare workers can also record data on a person’s symptoms and send it to a doctor at a referral hospital to make a diagnosis. These healthcare workers are supplied with special built-in software on their phones that leads them through a step-by-step diagnostic process. The eHealth initiative, which forms part of the European Union’s strategy to enhance interconnectivity in Africa through ICT, is an example of this. Nkubito Bakuramutsa, executive director of the Rwanda Information Technology Authority, is quoted in an article as saying: "The system works like this: a patient is diagnosed at for example Kabgayi, where the doctor will do the necessary tests, the results of which are sent via the system to the referral doctor in King Faisal. The latter then examines the tests and proposes the treatment." MobileActive.org, A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact, describes a similar system, called RapidResponse. View a video explaining how the system works here.
Monitoring a patient from a distance
TRACnet in Rwanda is a success story with regard to remote monitoring. This project, under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and the Treatment Research and AIDS Centre was implemented to address HIV/AIDS in the country and fast-track their anti-retroviral programme. Using mHealth, they keep track of “patient adherence to treatment regimens, drug resistance and ARV drug and lab supplies (to avoid shortages or stock-outs)”. It is currently employed in all 134 health facilities offering ART in Rwanda, accounting for 100% of all ART patients in the country. Training healthcare workers
Other ICTs are also being used to educate healthcare workers and the public about heath issues. In South Africa Mindset Health, a partnership between Mindset Network, the National Department of Health and Sentech, “sources and creates digital health educational content delivered via video, multimedia computer lessons and print”. Development Works did an evaluation of a Mindset programme earlier this year. If Mars and Seebregts’ prediction in A Country Case Study for e-Health in South Africa is accurate, this is a field that will occupy the development sector increasingly in years to come. |
According to a report compiled earlier this year for the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation, entitled 
It is essential that for example TB, HIV and diabetes patients take their medicine strictly. SMS services are now being used to remind patients to do this.
Healthcare workers are provided with information via mobile technology to increase their knowledge. According to the UN report on mHealth, College Dublin (TCD) is collaborating with the medical school at Makerere Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, to provide healthcare workers in Uganda with much needed training on “the clinical care, research, and prevention of HIV/AIDS” via phones or PDAs.