New Vodafone report on mHealth

Vodafone has just released a report on mHealth as part of its Health Debate. The report explores ways in which mHealth has succeeded, and ways that barriers to adoption by users still remain. Despite the considerable interest and coverage in the space, many of the solutions are still at the small scale. Fordcastle was asked to be part of the team, and we wrote about mHealth services in developed countries, and some common factors for success.

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Nokia finally getting into mobile health

This is something we talked about a lot during my time there, but it never really took off. India is a natural place for them to start as they had a market share in excess of 75%, but as Android takes off there, it may be getting a bit late for them to develop a natural social network through their user base. 

Nokia Announced Mobile Health Initiative:

New Delhi: Nokia India, in association with Arogya World, has announced a diabetes prevention mobile health initiative in India. With this Nokia aims to reach one million Nokia Life Tools consumers in rural and urban India in the next two years through text messages on diabetes awareness and prevention available in multiple languages. This initiative will use mobile phones as a vehicle to combat chronic non-communicable diseases like diabetes.

Economist article on mHealth - it's getting real

I had missed this when it came out in November last year. Mentions some of the companies I'm now familiar with - Dalberg Advisors, Weltel (not named, but it was their SMS HIV study that was the first data point) and Welldoc. I've been working in the mobile space for almost ten years, yet I've never heard the pun "M-powered" until now. Thanks to the folks at St. James.  

Quoting Bill Gates, they agree that the next wave of innovation is going to come not from the west, but from developing countries.  

Wireless health care: M-powered | The Economist:

No doubt a dose of scepticism is warranted about m-health. But given the growing evidence of its usefulness and the new business models from emerging markets, there is reason for hope too. As Mr Gates pointed out this week, ?Middle-income countries are where most innovation in health care is going to come from.?

Mobile trends

We put together some trends work for a client in the health-care space, here's a selection of the mobile trends. 

Mobile trends and implications

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mHealth in Bangladesh (link)

Using mHealth to reduce maternal mortality in Bangladeshi villages | Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI):

The Sajida worker greeted the family and started recording information according to her checklist. I noticed the mother had kept the copy of her records from her pregnancy. After the examination, the community health worker uploaded the information via her mobile phone. The doctor reviewed the information and gave advice instantly via this mobile link. The mother told me she was satisfied to get advice from the doctor at no cost while sitting in her home. While there is no fee for checkups for microfinance program members, Sajida Foundation charges for diagnostic tests, for example pregnancy and diabetes tests. The process took only 30 minutes from beginning to end.