Technology

In many African countries, fixed-line Internet connections are rare and paper forms are still the primary way of recording the spread of disease. But more than 60% of the population now lives in areas with mobile phone coverage and the GSMA expects that figure to rise to 85% by 2010. That has made it feasible to use mobile phones to relay this information directly into health authorities' computer systems, allowing rapid interventions such as distribution of medication and education programmes for those at risk. MTN, which operates in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, is the first operator partner in this programme and will support the roll out of handsets and the underlying data service.

"Rapid and accurate communications channels are crucial to tackling the many health problems faced by African countries and other parts of the developing world," said Rob Conway, Chief Executive of the GSM Association. "The roll out of this health management software in Africa will clearly demonstrate how governments can exploit the expanding mobile infrastructure to enhance the well-being of their citizens."

Phones for Health is building on the partners' successful experience in Rwanda deploying a system built by Voxiva called TRACnet. Working in close co-operation with the Government of Rwanda and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the system has been used for the last two years to manage that country's national HIV/AIDS program. The system allows health workers in the field to use their mobile phones to submit critical data for example patients, drug supplies and lab results.

"With TRACnet, we have a powerful tool to manage the HIV/AIDS program and deliver care to Rwanda's HIV/AIDS patients. Health care workers use something as simple as a cell-phone, even where there is no electricity, to report on the number of patients on treatment, drug stock levels and the other key data we need. Rwanda is the first country in Africa with a national scale real-time information system to manage its HIV/AIDS program. We believe this can be a model for scaling up HIV/AIDS programs across Africa." Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Executive Secretary, Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission.

The partnership will allow health workers in the field to use a standard Motorola handset equipped with a downloadable application to enter health data. The system then transfers the data via a packet based mobile connection (GPRS) into a central database. If GPRS isn't available, the software can use a SMS data channel to transmit the information.