Health – Page 4 – Integra LLC

2011 mHealth Summit Q&A

The mHealth Alliance is building on the monumental success of last year’s mHealth Summit, which saw more than 2,600 attendees from nearly 50 countries. This year, the mHealth Alliance joins HIMSS and NIH as organizing partners for the FNIH-presented mHealth Summit. The Summitwill bring together leaders in government, the private sector, industry, academia, providers, and not-for-profit organizations from across the mHealth ecosystem and around the world. It will take place December 5^th-7^th at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center located just outside Washington, DC at the National Harbor.

As everyone gears up for the 2011 mHealth Summit, I have received a lot of questions. Some have been logistical, while others have been about the content of the Summit. I thought it might be helpful for those thinking about attending or planning to attend if I post questions as I get them along with answers. Here are a few I have gotten so far:

Q: What is the best airport to fly into and how do I get from the airport to the Gaylord?

A: There are three major airports that serve the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Super Shuttles can be taken from all of these locations, and the Gaylord offers hourly shuttle service from Reagan National Airport (DCA). Please visit Shuttle & Metro page of the mHealth Summit site for more information.

Q: Unfortunately, I missed the early registration period. Is there a discount code available?

A: Yes! The mHealth Alliance has a discount codefor the mHealth Summit. If you enter the code mHA11 during the registration process, you will receive $50 off a Full Access Pass. The Full Access Pass will get you into all of the Super Sessions, the Concurrent Sessions, the Exhibit Floor, the Monday Evening Reception, and the Keynote Luncheon on Tuesday. For more information about the different levels of passes available, please visit the registration page.

Q: How much of a focus will there be on maternal health projects?

A: The Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative (MMI) is an important initiative of the mHealth Alliance. By focusing on maternal-newborn health as a lens to the application of ICTs to health systems, the mHealth Alliance is working toward health systems transformation to improve health outcomes for all populations. As such, maternal health is a very important topic for us, and it can be found throughout the summit program. A few panels and events that may have maternal content include, but are not limited to: mHealth Business Models in Maternal Health, The Intersection of Mobile Health and Public Health – Towards Greater Understanding and Collaboration, Deployment Case Studies for the mHealth Field Worker, and several sessions of the mFinance track. There will also be a Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA): An Exchange with Partners side event, which will feature active discussions with its in-country and global partners. Visit the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) site to learn more about their activities around the world.

Q: How much of a focus will there be on mHealth in the developing world?

A: Making sure that the experiences of people in the developing world are represented at the mHealth Summit is a priority of the mHealth Alliance. Panels and events that focus on this include, but are not limited to: Global Policy and Regulatory Perspectives of mHealth, Global Regulatory Frameworks: Understanding Regulatory Concerns Across Different Markets, Government Role in Scaling mHealth: Collaborations to Launch National mHealth Strategies, Successful mHealth Business Models in Emerging Markets, A New Model for National-level mHealth Planning, and the above mentioned MAMA event. The mHealth Alliance will also host a side event featuring mHealth national stakeholders from around the globe. At the National Stakeholders: Learning from the Global South event, panelists will share the successes and challenges they have faced in bringing a diverse group of stakeholders together to tackle issues like policy and regulation, interoperability, data security, and intersections with other mServices.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to comment below, and I will try to answer you as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your interest in the mHealth Summit. If you would like to register, please click here. We hope to see you there!

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Will Nigeria Turn to mHealth to Achieve its Healthcare Goals?

Nigeria may be joining a number of African countries in prioritizing mHealth as a way to improve the country’s troubled healthcare system. At a recent mobile Health workshop in Nigeria that was put together by the African telecommunications company MTN, stakeholders voted for the nation to adopt a mobile healthcare system.

Omobola Johnson, Nigeria's Minister of Technology and Communications

According to some, Nigeria is among the countries leading the way in using mobile health services. Several mobile companies operate there, with MTN serving the largest population percentage followed by Globacom, Zain and Etisalat. The Nigerian Communications Commission estimates that around 105 million of the country’s 155 million people were subscribed to a mobile service provider in August 2011.

Nigeria faces many challenges in expanding its healthcare system, such as a lack of infrastructure, a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, high illiteracy rates and unreliable power sources. The nation’s government has made some efforts to address these challenges in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency operates under the Health Ministry to promote and support the development of a high quality primary healthcare system.

Photo credit: eHealth Nigeria

But is the Nigerian government prioritizing mHealth as a means to improve healthcare delivery? Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s recently appointed Technology and Communications Minister, has been pushing toward nationwide mobile coverage as well as the implementation of emergency call centers and phone lines. However, when Johnson revealed the Ministry’s mandate at the end of August, the use of mobile devices for improved healthcare was not mentioned specifically.

Many individuals, private companies, civil society organizations, and aid agencies feel that Nigeria should embrace mHealth as a mechanism for repositioning the country’s healthcare system. Through fuller adoption of mHealth into the healthcare delivery system, many more people could be reached. But the government will need to place mHealth at the top of the agenda and support mHealth initiatives should the emerging field succeed in improving Nigeria’s healthcare.

October 19, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How to Disseminate Maternal Health Information to Rural Women

There are numerous ICT projects that focus on maternal health, many designed to reach women in rural areas where there is a severe lack of healthcare services. Mhealth in particular – the use of mobile phones to improve health – has taken off as a tool for providing critical information to pregnant and new mothers. In USAID’s MAMA project, for example, pregnant women in Bangladesh receive weekly information updates via text or voice message.

Photo credit: Open Ideo

But what is the best method for disseminating health information to rural women? How can the women learn and interpret the information in a way in which they can understand its value, making certain behavior changes if needed? Vikram Parmar, a professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, attempted to find this out through research conducted in India with 120 women from seven different rural villages. Parmar wanted to know how to motivate users of a Primary Health Information System (PHIS) to adopt positive health practices through designing and developing a Health Information System that maximized information dissemination.

Parmar wanted to explore how to improve information dissemination where health ICT projects had fallen short in three areas. First, he was concerned with the limited impact of Health Information Systems in educating rural users, as well as ICT-based health interventions such as film showings and radio program broadcasts that had not improved the health practices of rural target audiences. Secondly, the typical content and design of Health Information Systems did not encourage regular use due to the “non-persuasive setting of health interventions,” resulting in an information gap between rural women and primary health information. Finally, HIS deployed to rural users were based on content developed for urban users, resulting in a mismatch between the information given to rural women and the information they actually needed. In particular, maternal health and other personal women’s health issues had not been addressed.

Parmar proposed addressing these problems by employing a user-centered design framework to develop ICT interventions (see framework in full below). He tested this framework in the context of the PHIS. The results of his exploratory research indicated that the rural women’s knowledge had improved after interacting with the PHIS, signifying the importance of understanding user needs, taking into account existing social beliefs and practices related to health issues. Using this framework could improve information dissemination, resulting in positive change in rural women’s health-related practices.

October 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Marketing “Mobile Midwife” in Ghana

Can information delivered on a mobile phone affect the outcome of a pregnancy in a developing country? Can communities and healthcare workers use mobile phones to save the lives of newborns? These are some of the questions that the Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) program in Ghana is trying to address. Grameen Foundation is working with Ghana Health Service and Columbia University in one of the poorest rural districts of Ghana to try to improve the health outcomes for mothers and their newborns using mobile phones. But once a service has been created, how do you generate awareness for it and ensure there is adequate participation?

In July 2010, we launched a service called “Mobile Midwife,” which enablespregnant women and their families to receive SMS or pre-recorded voice messages on personal mobile phones. The messages are tied to the estimated due-date for the woman so the information is time-specific and delivered weekly in their own language. Nurses also use mobile phones to record when a pregnant woman has received prenatal care. If critical care is missed, both the mother and the nurse receive a reminder message on their mobile phones. To date, over 7,000 pregnant women and children under five have been registered in the system. More detail about the program can be found online in our “Lessons Learned in Ghana” report.

One of the challenges we faced in the development of this system was how to generate awareness for the “Mobile Midwife” service in the first place. Unless people register for the service, they cannot receive the important information we are able to provide about pregnancy. As we talked to people in the rural villages where “Mobile Midwife” would be available, it quickly became clear that communities in Ghana, and particularly the Upper East Region, had been inundated with cartoon-like health message campaigns from myriad NGOs and government agencies. People told us that if campaigns were seen as “too slick,” people would not think the messages were relevant to them. The MOTECH team decided to pursue an approach that sought to provide “aspirational” images that were differentiated from the typical “NGO cartoon” campaign, but still were relevant to the UER population. This included using real photographs instead of drawings, and ensuring that the people in the photographs were wearing clothes in the style of those worn in the rural areas where we worked. Part of the aspirational message was dressing the models in new, clean clothing, which proved to be effective. When field testing the marketing styles, many people said they “liked the lady in the pictures and it made them feel good as one day they would like to be dressed well too.” The team also decided to create some messaging that was targeted specifically to men, in an effort to respect their roles as decision makers in the family, get them to listen to the messages with their partners, and be a part of making positive health choices throughout pregnancy, birth and early childhood. As the program evolves, we expect to experiment with broader reach marketing vehicles such as radio and community mobilization.

Initiative:

Maternal Newborn mHealth

Order:

October 5, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

USAID MAMA initiative leading the way in mobile for maternal health projects

The USAID-initiated MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action) project that utilizes cell phones to improve maternal health in developing countries gave an in-depth update at the latest mHealth Working Group meeting.

The pilot initiative, announced in May by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and co-sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, has begun work in Bangladesh. MAMA seeks to achieve “scale, sustainability and impact” by creating a replicable model of reaching low-income mothers and household decision-makers (husbands, mothers-in-law) through increasing the impact of current mHealth programs, providing technical assistance to new mHealth models, and improving methods of applying mobile technology to improving maternal health.

At the working group meeting, Sandhya Rao of USAID and Pamela Riley of USAID’s SHOPS (Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector) program discussed the status of Aponjon, the MAMA project in Bangladesh. Aponjon provides vital health information through mobile phones two times a week to expecting and new mothers, reminding them of when to receive checkups and how to stay healthy during the pregnancy. Bangladesh was chosen to pilot the project because the country’s government has been a leader in promoting and expanding access to ICTs and is very active in mHealth.

Photo credit: Council on Foreign Relations

In order to bring it to a national scale, the burgeoning MAMA initiative has established private, public, and NGO partnerships to help implement its activities, and is carefully monitoring its methods and practices to ensure that the project is reaching its target goals. For example, Aponjon is constantly tweaking the content of its phone messages so that mothers and decision-makers understand, retain and relate to the information given.

Photo credit: Highmark Medicare Services

Another aspect of the project that MAMA will be monitoring is its business models to determine which are the most sustainable and effective. Currently, customers pay service providers to retrieve the phone messages. Text messaging is the cheapest method for remitting information in most developing countries, but many of the poorest clients are unable to read the texts. The alternative is interactive voice response (IVR) through which customers can hear recorded messages at a much lower cost than call centers but more than texting. MAMA and its partners are experimenting with different pay schemes, such as subsidizing rates, working with service providers to offer low rates or donate funds to the project, and charging fees based on usage.

It will take the new initiative years before sustainable, reliable, and replicable models are in place. What is clear is that the potential for improving maternal and newborn health through the use of mobile phones is being tapped.

September 29, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

AfriHealth Conference, Nairobi, 30 November – 1 December 2011

AITEC announces expert speaker line-up for AfriHealth Conference, Nairobi, 30 November – 1 December 2011

OPENING PLENARY

Consolidating the gains of technological innovation in healthcare through effective management

Professor Yunkap Kwankam, Executive Director, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), Switzerland

Aiming for a more integrated approach in healthcare delivery at national and local levels

Dr Katherine Getao, Head of eGovernment, Office of the President, Kenya

The economics of eHealth

Professor Maurice Mars, Head, Department of Telehealth, University of KwaZulu-Natal & President, South African Telemedicine Association

Ericsson’s mHealth Solutions – use cases and success criteria to enhance healthcare delivery

Rainer Herzog, Head of Strategy & Business Development mHealth & eHealth, Ericsson

mHealth: Turning hype into delivery

mHealth reaches puberty: Hype & hyperventilation

Bright Simons, Founder, mPedigree, Ghana

Using mobile telephony as an innovative communication channel for family planning

Bas Hoefman, Text to Change, Kenya

mHealth and the required ecosystem in East Africa

John Kieti, mLab, Kenya

PLENARY 2

An overview of latest worldwide trends in telemedicine

Frank Lievens, Board Member & Secretary, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth, Belgium

Addressing the fragile environment of e-health in resource-limited settings

Dr Christoph Larsen, synaLinQ, Vietnam & Kenya

Accessing funding for healthcare initiatives in Africa

Ken Nwosu, eHealth Ontario & McMaster University MSc eHealth Programme, Canada

Pharmaceutical management

Anti-counterfeit systems for pharmaceuticals

David Svarrer, CEO, Digital Age Institute, Kenya

Using IT for improved pharmaceutical care delivery in developing countries: A case study of Benin

Dr Thierry Oscar Edoh,University of Bonn & German Federal Army University of Munich, Germany

Case Studies 2

A Multilingual Expert System for Ubiquitous Diseases Diagnosis (MESUDD)

Dr John Oladosu, Lecturer, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria

Community-based eHealth promotion for safe motherhood- A case study from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Dr Shariq Khoja, Director AKDN eHealth Resource Centre, Aga Khan University, Kenya

Business models for effective service delivery: Rural Health Systems

Changing African healthcare through private sector technology innovations

Steve Landman, CEO, Carego International, Kenya & USA

Leveraging telehealth to improve child maternal health

Iboun Sylla, Business Development Manager, Texas Instruments, USA

National e-health policy development: The Commonwealth approach

Dr Sylvia Anie, Director, Social Transformation Programmes Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK, and Dr Adesina Iluyemi and Tom Jones^,Directors, TinTree International eHealth and Consultants, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK

PANEL DISCUSSION

What are the best practice achievements that can be replicated across the continent?

MODERATOR

Professor Yunkap Kwankam, Executive Director, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), Switzerland

PANEL MEMBERS

Lucy Fulgence Silas, Country Director for Tanzania, D-Tree International

Dr Moretlo Molefi, MD, Telemedicine Africa, South Africa

Dr Catherine Omaswa, Chairperson, National eHealth Committee, Uganda

Dr Wuleta Lemma, Director, Tulane Technical Assistant Program (TUTAP) Ethiopia

WORKSHOP 1

Open source healthcare information systems

Nurhizam Safie, United Nations University, International Institute of Global Health (UNU-IIGH), Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia

Open Source health information systems offer an alternative to proprietary healthcare information systems. Currently, most developing countries have a tight financial budget for their healthcare services and cannot afford the high cost of licence fees imposed by proprietary healthcare information system providers. Therefore, open source healthcare information systems are an attractive alternative to be introduced in the healthcare services of developing countries. By using open source healthcare information systems, the healthcare providers such as hospitals and clinics can improve the efficiency of services, reduce licensing and maintenance costs in managing information systems, as well as catering for future scaleability and growth.

Among the available open source healthcare information systems, MEDICAL has been chosen for this workshop because MEDICAL is a multi-user, highly scaleable and centralised system which provides the following functionality:

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

This workshop is intended for users who want to get a better introductory functional understanding of MEDICAL. The workshop offers a thorough knowledge in usability and understanding of two critical modules, namely Patient Management and Financial Management.

Objectives

Having attended this workshop, participants should be able to:

Understand the concept of open source health information systems.
Understand the functional concepts of MEDICAL modules, namely Patient Management and Financial Management.
Understand the development concepts and architecture of MEDICAL.
Workshop Content

Introduction to MEDICAL and Basic Settings

Introduction to MEDICAL: Vision and Mission
Architecture: Supported operating systems, databases & ERPs
The modular concept framework
The MEDICAL development environment.
Introduction to Sourceforge and SVN
Introduction to Transifex: The translation and localization portal

Patient Management

Patient registration
Emergency department /ambulatory
Outpatient/In-patient
Admission, discharge & transfer (ADT)
Appointment & scheduling
Resource scheduling
Medical record management
Report & statistics

Financial Management

Charging, billing & invoicing
General ledgers
Accounts receivable/payable
Cash book management
Reporting

WORKSHOP 2

Using theCasemix system for health finance management

Prof Dr Syed Aljunid, Professor of Health Economics and Senior Research Fellow, UN University International Institute for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia

This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the Casemix system for enhancement in quality and efficiency of healthcare services . Casemix experts from the UN University International Institute for Global Health will share their experience in implementing Casemix systems in a number of developing countries globally. The workshop will provide an overview of Casemix, its evolution from the first version introduced in the 1980s by Professor Robert Fetter from Yale University, to the present day where the system has been implemented in more than one hundred countries worldwide. Minimum dataset requirements for Casemix systems will be discussed in detail, including requirements for diagnoses and procedures coding using the ICD classification system. Benefits of using Casemix as a prospective provider payment mechanism under social health insurance programmes will be presented in this workshop. Software currently available to support implementation of Casemix system will be demonstrated including the recently launched the UNU-CBG Casemix Grouper, a universal, dynamic and advanced grouper software. Proposed plan for implementation of Casemix system under the UNU-IIGH programme will be presented in this Workshop.

Workshop Objectives:

At the end of the workshop, participants should be able to:

Understand the concept of the Casemix system
Appreciate the role of Casemix in enhancing quality and efficiency of healthcare services.
Design the basic minimum dataset package for Casemix Implementation.
Have basic knowledge on the use of UNU-CBG Casemix Grouper

Workshop Content:

Casemix:: An introduction
Minimum Dataset for the Casemix system
Supporting software for Casemix
Implementation of Casemix in developing countries for health financing

To register as a delegate, log on to www.aitecafrica.com or email info@aitecafrica.com

September 28, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Non-communicable Diseases, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Arogya World announces diabetes prevention mHealth program in India

Arogya World, a US based NGO, in association with Nokia, will be launching a large-scale diabetes prevention mHealth program in India. The diabetes awareness program aims to reach one million people over the course of the next two years through the use of text messages, which will be translated in multiple languages, catering to the diverse population in India.

The announcement was made at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York City.

For more information, read the official press release here.

September 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs): The low hanging fruit for mHealth

As the New York UN meeting on Non Communicable Diseases NCDs draws to a close, one big takeaway that everyone seems to agree on is that NCDs are reaching epidemic proportions worldwide. This may be bad news; however it does present some tremendous opportunities for mHealth in developing countries. NCDs include cardiovascular conditions, some cancers, chronic respiratory conditions and type 2 diabetes. These conditions account for 60% of all deaths worldwide, with 80% occurring in low and middle-income countries[1]. It’s time we put as much funding and emphasis on NCDs in developing countries as we do with infectious diseases. NCDs have twice the number of deaths than infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria), maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies (nature link). [2]

There is no refuting the fact that there are significant problems to overcome. The fact is Global health is challenging, but not all challenges are equal, some challenges are more challenging than other. Let me elaborate: If you are attempting to find a cure for HIV or a vaccine for malaria. This would be difficult from a scientific perspective; it would also be expensive and will likely take a long time to achieve. On the other hand, if you attempt to educate a population on diets, lifestyle changes, encourage exercise and reduce smoking; then you will likely prevent an epidemic of extreme proportions that is on the way to developing nations.

There are some low hanging fruits that can be tackled right now with existing mobile technology and know-how that would make a significant impact on the future of Global health. The traditional model of NCD episodic care in clinic and hospital-based settings is inadequate in developing countries due to scarce resources. The low hanging fruit could be plucked by using a mHealth diagnostic and monitoring platform to diagnose health conditions and address the common risk factors, such as smoking, diet and sedentary lifestyles. There are a multitude of studies that show how cellphones can have a positive impact on lifestyle and behavior changes, tying this notion to medical diagnostics and monitoring (continuous or periodic)could have a profound effect. There is a need for diversity in the funding criteria to allow funds to be diverted to develop viable and sustainable innovations in urban areas to address NCDs, there seems to be too much emphasis on rural health in developing nations. Yet there is strong evidence the urban dweller will be far worse off in the future due to the growing obesity rates.[3] Mobile operators in the developing world are in a great position to use their 3G networks to exploit the new health data and services that will surely be unleashed.

[1] World Health Organization Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment (WHO, Geneva, 2005).

[2] Nature 450, 494-496 (22 November 2007) | doi:10.1038/450494a; Published online 21 November 2007

[3] Overweight and obesity in urban Africa: A problem of the rich or the poor? http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/465

September 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, HIV/AIDS, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Scalable and Replicable: ICT4Health is Chosen Theme for UN South-South Awards

Digital Health 4 Digital Development was the theme of choice for the 2011 South-South awards that took place earlier this week. The United Nations-supported awards ceremony, held September 19th, honors governments, organizations and individuals accelerating progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and this year awards were given for utilizing ICTs for the advancement of the MDG health goals.

Prime Minister of Bangladesh receives South South award from

Photo Credit: thefinancialexpress-bd.com

The awards were organized by South South News, a digital media platform launched by the United Nations General Assembly High-level Committee in 2010. The platform disseminates development news and allows countries in the global South to share best practices in advancing implementation of the MDGs. As health remains a high priority within the international development field, with three of the eight MDGs calling for health improvements by 2015, this year South South chose the “catalytic and unifying force of ‘digital health’” as its focus.

Awardees were recognized for policies, programs and projects that address global health using ICTs as a mechanism for “scalability and replicability of the broad development agenda.” Awards were given on health categories such as Women and Children’s Health and HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria with special consideration given to achievements in the fields of mobile, broadband, Internet, medical, and pharmaceutical applications.

Among the winners was Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina who received recognition for the use of ICTs in addressing women and children’s healthcare. The government of Bangladesh has made increasing the use and availability of ICTs a priority over the past decade, declaring IT a “thrust” sector and implementing a national ICT policy in 2002. The prime minister has been a catalyst for ICT development in Bangladesh, launching the Digital Bangladesh 2021 program, reducing taxes to make computers and other electronics more affordable, and giving free internet services to schools. This is not the first time she has been recognized for her ICT work in the country. The PM noted during the ceremony that most of Bangladesh’s 11,000 community health clinics have been digitized, allowing for free treatment of diseases like malaria and AIDS and reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.

Use of PDA by the nurses at ICDDRB hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Photo credit: Bytesforall "ICT4Health" Network

Other development agencies and UN-affiliated organizations are also choosing to give awards to those using ICTs to advance public health initiatives. The Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation, rising from the work of UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention, has launched a competition to find innovative start up projects that use social media and mobile phones for HIV prevention. The competition is taking applications until October 1^st and the winners will receive up to $10,000 to implement one-year projects.

As global health becomes a pressing priority, it is essential to utilize, innovate, and increase access to ICTs within the healthcare sector. The South South awards have set a precedent by recognizing the success of ICT4Health in accelerating the Millennium Development Goals and could encourage Global South countries to follow in the footsteps of nations like Bangladesh.

September 22, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Operators as Clinical Service Providers?

Mobile Health Live recently held a live broadcast webinar from Kuala Lumpur to examine the role of mobile operators in the delivery of mobile health services.

The webinar was moderated by Richard Cockle of the GSMA and featured contributions from Claire Margaret Featherstone of Maxis, Irfan Goandal from Qtel, Dr Mubbashir Iftikhar from KPJ Healthcare and Craig Friedrichs from the GSMA.

The panel discussed the opportunities open to operators working within the mobile health sector, and highlighted a number of specific areas of interest where operators can provide tangible benefits to healthcare partners and their patients. According to the panel, support for a stretched public sector and the remote monitoring of patients with lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, are two key services that mobile operators can provide for the mobile health sector

The panel recognised the complex nature of the healthcare industry with multiple stakeholders and country specific regulation affecting local markets and discussed some of the work being undertaken to help facilitate the integration of mobile services into existing value chains.

If you weren’t able to tune in live to the webinar, you can now watch it on demand.

September 21, 2011/by actualize

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