The blog talk-share-learn recently posted a roundup of international development projects that are using mobile phones to deliver information and services. This list highlights what a powerful tool the mobile phone is and how many ways it can be used in low-resource settings. Here are some of the applications used for health care:
Community health workers in Rwanda.
One of IntraHealth International’s projects, the Last Mile Initiative, is designing an Open Source application for data collection and reporting via cell phones and other mobile devices to create a telecommunications-enabled Community Health Services Information System for the health sector in Rwanda.
The automated system itself is designed to rely on a centralized voice-response unit. Community health workers will make phone calls to the central processor and will be prompted to provide service data on a set of pre-determined indicators. The data collected via the voice response system will then be written to the database. Managers will be able to call into the system to retrieve performance data indicating how well their communities are meeting targets or performing as compared to the district, regional and/or national averages. The automated system also will support the broadcasting of updates from district, regional or national authorities that will keep health workers abreast of recent policy changes and disease outbreaks.
This project is just now getting under way. Visit the IntraHealth Informatics blog for updates over the next few months.
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