From America to Africa: Mobile phones are used for health communication campaigns

Mobile phones are becoming a popular device to reach out to target population worldwide.

In this post, Mobiles for health – American Style, Corinne Ramey gives three examples of how mobile phones are used in America to  reach out for target population for health related information.

1. Case 1: In the state of Georgia, mobile phones are being used to monitor the health of diabetes patients. The study participants sent glucose readings and photos of the meals they ate. Professor Elizabeth Mynatt, director of GVU Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology said, “You can ask people what they have for breakfast, and it sounds healthy, but then you see the proportions on the plate, and not so much.”

2. Case 2: Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc (ISIS), a California-based nonprofit focused on sexual health has been using text messaging campaigns such as SEXINFO and HOOKUP for providing sexual health-related information to people.

3. In Phoenix, Arizona, which is the ninth-most ozone polluted city in America, residents are using mobile phones to keep track of air quality. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) sends out “high pollution” alerts to its 900 text message subscribers.

In Africa, Katrin Verclas writes in her post “Rapid Response, a m-health Platform” that a m-health platform on RapidSMS has been developed for the Millennium Villages Project with support from the UNICEF Innovation Group. The program is used by health care providers in the field to facilitate and coordinate activities through SMS text messages.