Mobile – Page 10 – Integra LLC

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

Drug traders paying pharmaceuticals for counterfeit drug detection?

U.S. based social enterprise Sproxil announced the start of its counterfeit drug detection program in India two weeks ago. This comes after the company announced it would receive a $1.8 million financial backing from Acumen Fund to expand its operations to India back in March 2011.

Sproxil is well known for its Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) architecture which fights the distribution of counterfeit drugs in developing nations. The MPA system takes advantage of the mobile phone market which is widely accessible in Africa. MPA uses scratch off cards that come with purchased drugs. These scratch off cards display a unique identifier which is texted to the pharmaceutical supplier to verify the authenticity of the drugs.

Photo Credit: Sproxil

When drugs depart the factory they are manufactured at, the scratch off card with the unique identifier accompanies every package manufactured ensuring authenticity from the source. When the drug is purchased, customers can scratch the card and text the identifier to a number provided by Sproxil from any cell phone and receive verification within seconds on the authenticity of the drugs. Sproxil says the texts are free of charge to the consumer.

Sproxil has affected the lives of many uninformed consumers before going into India. They established the first national mobile-based anti-counterfeit program in Africa and has already sold millions of anti-counterfeit labels which provide services to several global pharmaceutical companies, the company says. Drug suppliers in Africa that have lost potential revenue claimed to have covered for their losses and even experienced growth after using MPA.

Sproxil moves to a market in India that is suffering from counterfeit drug trade. “India has one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world, but is plagued by counterfeit (spurious) medicines made elsewhere that tarnish brand India,” said Ashifi Gogo, CEO of Sproxil. Gogo cites the recent success of a pilot program in Nigeria as the basis to expand to India. Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication technology has touched the lives of over 80,000 people, helping patients avoid getting ripped off by counterfeiters,” said Gogo.

Photo Crdit: SRxA

The world of counterfeit drug trade is a devastating one. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 30% of drugs sold in developing nations are counterfeit with the counterfeit drug market estimated at $200 billion by the World Customs Organization (WCO). The number of deaths and drug resistance levels continue to rise due to consumption of fake drugs, which is creating a healthcare nightmare.

The MPA system is a cost effective and relatively simple way to track fake drugs for both consumers and (authentic)drug suppliers. To allay the costs of his service, Gogo thinks his system gets drug counterfeiters to pay for MPA services. “Consumers are not paying, government is not paying as well. Pharmaceuticals are paying Sproxil to recoup shares lost to counterfeiters. So in some sense, the counterfeiters are paying for this service.”

In any case, Sproxil seems poised to make a dent in India’s counterfeit drug trade, and it is much needed.

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Family Planning, Health, Health, Health Systems, Infectious Diseases, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Nutrition, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

New mHealth service gives Iraq options for monitoring health

Iraq’s largest private telecommunications company, Asiacell, announced this week the launch of its mobile health content download and SMS service which is now available to its prepaid and postpaid subscribers. Asiacell is the only mobile telecom company providing coverage for all of Iraq.

An Iraqi man holds a cell phone. Photo Credit: Mario Tama, Getty Images

The new service offers information on various health practices which can be discriminately selected by the user. Asiacell offers a weekly and a daily health update service. The daily health updates include information on women’s health, men’s health, children’s health, dieting, mental health, and diabetes. Albeit a little more limited, the weekly updates is a downloadable service which only cover topics such as sports and fitness, mental health, and emergency medicine.

Customers can subscribe to the daily SMS service, by sending a blank SMS message to the toll-free short code “2330”, and then send their preferred health topic, which they can choose from a list that will be automatically sent via SMS, to short code “2331”. This service costs IQD 2,500 ($2.14) per month.

Subscribers can also download content on a weekly basis by sending the number “1” to short code “2332” for sports and fitness information, or to “2333” for mental health information, or to “2334” for emergency medicine information. This service costs IQD 2,000 ($1.71) per month.

A similar service operates in India called mDhil which uses SMS to send health messages on various topics. The service overcame social stigmas regarding certain topics of health such as reproductive health, and became one of the most successful mHealth programs in India. Asiacell’s new service faces identical hurdles in Iraq and hopes to prevail like mDhil did.

Photo Credit: Asiacell

Asiacell is the only telecom provider to cover all of Iraq. They provide services to nearly 8 million of the estimated 31 million living in Iraq. This is remarkable given that just 5 years ago under the reign of Saddam Hussein, less than one million Iraqis had access to land lines and the average civilian did not have access to a mobile phone. Despite that and the war which ruined telecommunication infrastructure, Iraqis now have steady access to telecom services, especially mobile phones.

It is probably due to the increased access to information that has led Iraqis to become more health conscious claims Asiacell. Dr. Mustafa Adil, an Iraqi physician, said that maintaining a healthy lifestyle has become a major concern for communities, as people are more aware of the importance of following the latest health advancements and practices. He explained that Asiacell’s Mobile Health service supports the healthcare sector’s goal to promote sound health habits.

July 6, 2011/by actualize

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

Unlimited medical consultation offered in India

A telehealth service was launched in India in early May called MeraDoctor. Created by the managing director of mHealth Venture India Pvt Ltd. Dr. Ajay Nair, MeraDoctor is the first service in India to offer unlimited medical consultations with a licensed doctor over the phone.

The service is highly convenient and highly accessible, since Indians can call the service from any part of India that has phone connectivity. It sounds like a customer service hotline, but unlike customer service systems which usually provide 24 hour coverage, MeraDoctor only operates from 8am to 10pm. However they are now advertising that 24 hour coverage will be coming soon.

Photo Credit: MeraDoctor

The MeraDoctor system is quite simple. They offer two plans, one for 300 Rs and a second for 500 Rs, for 3 months and 6 months of coverage respectively. The customer has the freedom to make unlimited consultations during hours of operation from any where in India and medical help can be offered for up to 6 family members.

Customers call the number, explain the symptoms and receive a diagnosis along with a drug prescription. The drug prescription is designed to be sent via SMS to the customer. If the condition is complex or enigmatic, the doctor sends information via SMS to the customer on the location of the nearest health facilities and the medical tests to take.

Nair says the doctors are fully licensed and are not to exit the phone conversation until the customer is completely satisfied and has all questions answered. “We encourage them to call us if they don’t understand their test results or what the doctor told them. Our aim is to answer all queries until the caller is satisfied,” explains Nair.

According to Nair, calls sometimes last up to 45 minutes long. MeraDoctors train their doctors not to use medical jargon in order to make the customer comfortable. Says Nair, “all the doctors at MeraDoctor besides being trained in internationally accepted phone triage protocol, are also taught to offer a friendly ear to each caller.”

MeraDoctor has reached 900 families so far in India and looks to keep growing. Similar programs have been implemented in Bangladesh, Australia and Kenya with mixed success. However, if MeraDoctor stays true to its claims of customer friendly service, reliability and unlimited consultations, the service may become a popular fixture.

According to Nair, the patient-doctor dynamic in India is one where a patient refrains from medical consultation until the condition worsens. And when a patient sees a doctor, he/she waits at the doctor’s office for hours for only 5-10 minutes and then pays for the visit out of pocket. Nair wants MeraDoctor to serve as an avenue for thorough and convenient consulting.

Ideologically, the MeraDoctor system is precious for many Indians who have inadequate and substandard medical care. However, immediate issues surface when talking about quality of medical advice and providing accurate diagnoses. Also, if patients are referred to visit a clinic, are they still asked to pay full price for the clinic services despite paying for MeraDoctor services? That wouldn’t seem opportunistic at all. Especially when Indians spend up to an eight of their income paying for medical services. In any case, MeraDoctor seems to be gaining ground, and any success will be significant for Indians.

July 5, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Business Enabling Environment, Economic Growth & Trade, Enterprise Development, MicroEnterprise Development, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Can Mobiles Increase Farmers’ Profits? Evidence from Malawi

USAID’s Mission in Malawi has evidence that mobile phones can and do have an impact on local farmers’ profits, according to Vince Langdon-Morris, an agricultural specialist with the Agency. Langdon-Morris explained that USAID Malawi’s is helping small-medium agricultural enterprises monitor and sell their products using an innovative mobile phone platform, similar to Esoko from Ghana.

In very simple terms, the commodity chain of agricultural production in Malawi is being modified in the following way by this project:

Farmers harvest grains and communicate with buyers via phone.
Small-medium business owners purchase farmers’ grains and monitor their product inventory and sales at their aggregation centers by phone.
The owners sell the grains in bulk to larger agri-businesses, checking market prices on their phones to ensure a quality sales price.

The phone helps the farmer to know where he should sell his grains at the best price and when the owner is willing to buy. The phone helps the small-medium enterprise owner because he can monitor the collections at the 20-30 aggregation centers that he usually operates, allowing him to sell in bulk at the right times and limiting his travel costs, among other benefits.

Mobile phones are tools to promote economic growth and other forms of development. Certainly, mobile phones are not the cure to all problems, but they can facilitate programs that do directly reduce poverty, such as this agricultural project by USAID Malawi. Other missions would do well to mimic their efforts and incorporate technology into their current projects in order to enhance effectiveness.

Given the success of M-PESA and other revolutionary applications like MXit and Ushahidi, mobiles4development (hastag #m4d on twitter) is gaining political clout within many development spheres, seemingly replacing microfinance as the solution to end poverty. Champions of m4d do not fail to mention World Bank studies that describe the connections between mobile phone usage and economic growth, improved healthcare, better agriculture, etc.

Unfortunately, such claims are overstated, as mobile phones cannot solve poverty. They can, however, be tools for improving development projects, as seen in Malawi. The test for USAID missions, then, will be to utilize mobiles phones as tools for development projects, but maintain a critical eye about their effectiveness.

June 29, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, HIV/AIDS, Infectious Diseases, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile health quizzes get a 2.7 million Euro boost

Text to Change (TTC), an mHealth non-profit organization based in the Netherlands, announced earlier this month that they will receive a €2.7 million grant to expand its services. TTC provides an SMS-based educational service to improve the health of citizens in eight countries in Africa and one in South America.

Already a big contributor in mHealth development, TTC hopes to become a leader in the field with the reception of its multi-million Euro grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Connect4Change (C4C), a consortium funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs that develops mobile based solutions on issues of poverty in Africa and Latin America. TTC will partner with C4C to expand its services to 11 more countries in Africa and South America by the end of this year.

Implementing ICT in the 11 countries is a top priority for both TTC and C4C. They are hoping the mutual partnership will make establishing ICT services an easier task as the expansion continues. According to TTC, the game plan calls for TTC to provide “low” technologies like SMS and mobile voice services while C4C provides “high” technologies such as mobile internet and video transfer. Therefore, TTC and C4C will play different roles.

C4C will also invest its time reaching out to local entities on the ground to strengthen ICT networks. TTC will focus on improving health outcomes through their established mobile phone initiatives.

TTC sets up their mobile platform through the recipient country’s mobile service infrastructure already in place. They then subscribe mobile phone users to their programs which use SMS communication to inform people of HIV testing, treatment clinics, and other health related services at no cost to the recipients.

TTC SMS system Photo Credit: TTC

TTC programs offer the information through a free educational quizzing service where participants are quizzed about a specific health topic. As participants answer the questions correctly, they are sent more rounds of questions, again at no cost. If the participant can answer enough questions correctly, he/she receives incentives such as phone credit, t-shirts and health products.

Thus far, TTC has reached thousands of individuals with their programs on HIV/AIDS, malaria, and reproductive health. Furthermore, to assess the impact of ICT in the countries they are currently working in, TTC will even conduct large scale ICT evaluations over the next few years in those countries.

TTC is poised to make an impact in ICT through their mobile services. Their work is just another example of how mobile phones are being used as a medium to educate, inform and save lives. The tag-team partnership with C4C will be expanded to all 11 target countries by the end of this year. However, we will have to wait some time before confirming the outcome of this joint strategic approach.

June 27, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, HIV/AIDS, Infectious Diseases, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Camels and SMS: Transporting vaccines in resource poor areas

Camel without refrigerator attached. Photo Credit: Art Center College of Design

The PATH initiative, which advances malaria vaccines, recently predicted that over ten times more vaccine storage will be needed in the developing world over the next 15 years. However, transporting and managing vaccines in developing countries faces many obstacles, including inhospitable climates, poor infrastructure, lack of electricity and disparate communities.

As a result, over 1 million people die every year in developing nations due to vaccine-preventable diseases. In some cases, vaccines may be reaching these populations, but when they do, they are no longer functional because they were not adequately cooled. Most vaccines must be stored within a certain temperature range in order to remain functional. Health organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them do just that.

Fridge about to be loaded onto camel. Photo Credit: Art Center College of Design

Many NGOs and ministries of health make use of mobile vaccine refrigerators that harness solar energy to power the internal chamber that holds the vaccines. A particularly innovative and resourceful vaccine refrigerator came on the backs of camels. Naps’ Camel Fridge was designed back in 2005 and operates off of solar power. The fridge uses solar panels to harness energy, and sits on the backs of camels that transport the fridges to rural destinations. Over 1,500 of these camel fridges have been sold to WHO and UNICEF programs.

But if a shipment of vaccines arrives spoiled, it is important to know where in the logistics chain the temperature was breached so that changes can be made to prevent a recurrence.

However, some issues with these mobile refrigerators are temperature maintenance and vaccine spoilage. A practical gadget that has made cold chain storage more efficient is a technology that involves vaccine monitoring. SmartConnect, a technology developed by Inveneo that uses existing cell phone networks for data communication, can monitor vaccines by sending information about the arrival time and temperatures of vaccines in transit. That way, officials will know not only if a vaccine has spoiled, but when and where the problem may have occurred.

Sure Chill Vaccine Refrigerator Photo Credit: True Energy

SmartConnect is not the only project making use of SMS technology. True Energy’s Sure Chill Vaccine Refrigerators, which are WHO pre-certified, can store vaccines at a constant optimal temperature, without power, for up to ten days while using a vaccine vial monitoring system that records temperature changes and can send an SMS to indicate those changes.

True Energy has already shipped multiple units to Senegal and Vietnam under project Optimize, a WHO/PATH collaboration, and aims to ship many more units to countries like South Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen, India and many more.

Incorporating mobile monitoring technologies and improving the efficiency of the fridges could make a tremendous impact on the success of many vaccination programs. And if PATH’s prediction rings true, they will be greatly needed.

June 24, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Sustainable Agriculture

SMS Productivo: Paraguayan farmers Join the Mobile Frenzy (Video)

Paraguayan farmers, like their counterparts across the developing world, are joining the legion of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid who now have access to mobiles—individually or through social networks.

They are also reaping the benefits of burgeoning agricultural markets, training opportunities and best practices that mobile-based systems help to inform them about and connect them to. The most recent, SMS Productivo, is premised on an SMS platformed, which was introduced by USAID’s Paraguay Productivo, under the management of CARANA Corporation.

This system has also automated data collection and enable agricultural planning to be more up-to-date and efficient, as farmers may now submit observations via text messages.

La Norteña, a cooperative, worked with PyP last fall to introduce SMS Productivo to their members. There are now five participating cooperatives and another 20 are ebbing to join.

Learn more about SMS Productivo and the stories of those using the technology.

June 23, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Data Makes Projects & Policies More Efficient

Photo Credit: MobileActive

Aggregating and collecting data from cell phones is one of the best ways to ensure resources used to help fight poverty are efficiently being allocated, while gaining insight on what policies work the best.

According to Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank’s Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reductions Programs for Africa, digital data collection is entirely transforming international development and bringing on, “revenge of the statistician”.

This transformation, he cites, have created two separate but interrelated effects in evaluating development projects.

Primarily, digital data collection allows funding from multilateral institutions, like the World Bank, to be more effective.

Goals set for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are quantified to see if the results are reached. Such as: how many children were treated for malaria, or what proportion of women use contraceptives?

This increased accuracy in household surveys can precisely identify who benefits from each dollar the government spends, also known as “benefit incidence analysis,” then structural adjustments can then be made to funnel funds to the appropriate recipient. Giugale elucidates by providing an example:

Most developing countries spend more bankrolling free public universities than building primary schools. But the main beneficiaries of that subsidized college education are the rich (who could pay tuition) not the poor (who could not)…Statistics lets you quantify these aberrations—and argue that the money should be redirected to those who really need it

Secondarily, he observed that surveys conducted on cell phones provide data to assess human capabilities so future policies and projects can be altered to fit the needs of those living in poverty and make outcomes more useful.

By assessing non-cognitive skills—such as reaction time and social interaction—educational programs can be designed to teach behaviors that will increase people’s productivity.

Marcelo Giugale Photo Credit: World Bank

Giugale argues that digital data collection can also measure how personal circumstances affect human opportunity. “We all know that children have no control or responsibility over their gender, skin color, birthplace, or parents’ income,” he contends.

“And yet, those kind of circumstances are sure-shot predictors of a child’s access to vaccination, potable water, kindergarten, the internet and many other platforms without which her probability of success is close to nil.” Giugale cites the Human Opportunity Index as being a large proponent of this initiative in shaping policy.

The use of cell phones to collect data has broken the once unconventional method of researching people in their communities. These randomized trials are useful in gauging what policies and projects work best, and which are seemingly wasteful.

“As the use of cellular telephony expands among the poor — at flash speed in places like Kenya –the possibility of turning them into data sources becomes real…” he concludes, “How ironic that, in the end, the war against poverty may be won when those who try to help the poor get to literally listen to them.”

In this video, Guigale explains the Human Development Opportunity Index and how it helps reduce poverty:

June 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, Infectious Diseases, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How mobile banking and financial incentives can fight TB

Photo Credit: Stop TB Partnership

Earlier this month, the Indus Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan reported a substantial increase in Tuberculosis (TB) detection rates after the start of a program that uses mobile technology and financial incentives to get people to test for the disease.

Since the implementation of the program in January 2011, reported TB cases more than doubled at the hospital. Doctors reported a total of 420 cases in the first quarter of 2011, up from 200 in the last quarter of 2010, before the program was in place.

The program is anchored by a financial incentive scheme and use of mobile technology. In the program, doctors and community health workers who screen for TB are rewarded with a financial incentive through their mobile banking account. Health professionals are rewarded based on both the number of sputum samples that they collect and the number of patients that test positive for active TB following sputum test results.

Mobile banking centers that have emerged in Karachi make this program possible. Health professionals use SMS to send their TB data to the Indus Hospital TB Reach mobile data collection system and in return receive a text message which tells them how many cases they have helped to detect. The incentives are then tabulated and distributed at the mobile banking centers on a monthly basis by the data collection system, called OpenMRS Mobile.

Tackling TB is a big deal in Pakistan and the South Asian region as a whole. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, Pakistan developed nearly 300,000 new cases of TB in 2009, making them 8^th on the list of countries most burdened by TB. Case detection is imperative in treating TB because according to TB Reach, for every 10 additional cases detected, an estimated 5 lives are saved and 100 infections are prevented.

The Indus Hospital received a grant from the Stop TB partnership’s TB Reach program. The TB Reach program focuses on promoting increased case detection of TB cases, ensuring their timely treatment, all while maintaining high cure rates within the national TB programs. Working in two “waves,” the first wave targeted 19 countries with $18.4 million worth of funding. The project at the Indus Hospital in Karachi is a product of the first wave. Under its Wave-2 funding, TB Reach has approved US$ 31 million for 45 projects in 29 countries.

The Indus Hospital program’s success has caught local attention as the Indus Hospital health workers are now training local private general practitioners on TB screening and detection. Furthermore Indus Hospital has launched a communications campaign complete with billboards, posters and local cable television ads that encourage people to get tested for TB. The Indus Hospital, also Pakistan’s first hospital to go paperless, hopes to expand the program nationally and even beyond.

June 16, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, Infectious Diseases, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

HP plans to provide mobile technology to tackle malaria

Nurse using app on Palm Pre 2 smartphone in Botswana. Photo Credit: HP

On June 6^th, Hewlett Packard (HP) announced it will collaborate with a non-profit organization in Botswana to provide technology to monitor and treat malaria outbreaks. HP announced it will begin a yearlong clinical trial that will equip medical professionals in Botswana with Palm Pre 2 smartphones designed to collect information on malaria outbreaks.

HP will supply the technology to the non-profit group Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING) who will train health workers to collect the data on malaria outbreaks. The data will be collected and stored through an application on the smartphones provided. The application can store photos, videos, audio files as well as GPS information which can be used to generate a geographic map of the areas affected by outbreaks, which has never before been done in Botswana.

The program hopes to increase the rates of mosquito net distribution and provide advanced warnings to regions at risk of an outbreak. Within a day, health workers can achieve results that would normally takes weeks to produce.

Malaria is one of the most widespread infectious diseases, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), takes nearly one million lives every year, mostly in Africa. WHO has predicted as much as 10% of the African population is under the threat of malaria. Therefore, controlling outbreaks and being able to predict devastating malaria epidemics is crucial to alleviating its burden.

What’s also noteworthy here is that HP is plunging into the mobile health monitoring market, one example of HP’s plans to contribute to global healthcare. Instead of putting money into pockets, HP is aiming to contribute technology and other innovative solutions to tackle challenges that are hindering healthcare around the world. This shouldn’t surprise anyone however, since HP was one of the founding members of the mHealth alliance.

This program indicates the rising importance of mobile health technology as a key player in tackling health burdens in developing countries. Using mobile technologies, whether to collect data from isolated populations or to monitor disease prevalence presents an avenue for NGO’s and governments to reduce health service costs and increase accessibility. HP hopes to scale up this program to all of Africa, contingent upon success in Botswana.

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June 10, 2011/by actualize

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