Advances in mobile health technology

This is part of a post by Meghan O'Hearn on the ONE blog. Read it in full here.

According to a new report from the UN Foundation and mHealth Alliance, there are now more than five billion wireless subscribers in the world. More than 70 percent of them reside in low- and middle- income countries. From using mobile phones to coordinating emergency health relief efforts to reminding patients to take their medicine, mHealth offers some serious potential for creative health care improvements in all corners of the world.

The report, titled New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies, said 83 percent of the 112 participating member states reported the presence of at least one mHealth initiative in their country. Of these, three-quarters reported four or more types of mHealth initiatives including health call centers, emergency toll-free telephone services, and mobile telemedicine.

These mHealth programs have helped some achieve impressive goals on the ground. The Ghana Medical Association, for example, launched the Mobile Doctors Network in Africa in 2008 to wirelessly connect an estimated 2,000 physicians in Ghana with free mobile-to-mobile voice and text services. The project has been tremendously successful in helping serve Ghana’s 24 million people as well as facilitate prompt emergency response communication.

And in 2007, the Bangladesh Ministry of Health began broadcasting SMS text messages to the country’s estimated 55 million mobile telephone numbers to increase awareness about health campaigns, particularly childhood vaccination initiatives. This project’s success has prompted several other health-related SMS services, including a pregnancy advice system for mothers.

Although lack of infrastructure, operating costs and knowledge about mHealth are significant barriers to implementation, particularly in rural Africa, progress is real. Only 10 percent of the African population had mobile phone coverage in 1999. By 2008, mobile phone coverage climbed to 60 percent of the population. By 2012, most villages in Africa will have coverage, with only Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Mali and Somalia staggering behind. Given unprecedented growth rates, the sky’s the limit with mobile technologies in the global health care arena.