Mobile health most profound game changer

Lazarus Sauti

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and pregnancy-related conditions account for 3 million deaths in Africa every year, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers also says in Sub-Saharan Africa, over 1.2 million new-borns and 265,000 mothers die every year. One in nine children die before the age of five and over 90 percent of the world’s estimated 1.2 million malaria deaths occur here.

“Tuberculosis accounts for over 230,000 fatalities and close to two-thirds of the world’s HIV infected are in this region.

“In South Africa, one in five adults is HIV-positive and in 2010, about 280,000 South Africans died of HIV/AIDS.

“In fact, it is estimated that over 40 percent of all deaths among South Africans are HIV/AIDS deaths and that over the next five years, 14 million more lives will be lost due to this disease,” remarks Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers added that countless lives are lost each year because of limited access to health information.

For instance, if an infectious disease breaks out in a remote village, it can take weeks for surveillance data collected on paper to reach central systems - and in that time, the outbreak could have become an epidemic.

Accordingly, to save life and improve health delivery services in Africa, countries within and across the continent should embrace mobile health solutions.

Equipped with a mobile phone, a health worker in a remote area can send real-time data on symptoms observed in an outbreak to the health ministry.

Dr. Victor Higgs, Managing Director of the Applied Nanodetectors, believes the whole idea of using mobile health should be to empower the patient and minimise the number of times they become ill.

“The aim is to give patients a tool to more effectively manage their chronic conditions, so this will minimise the number of times they visit their general practitioner (GP) and the number of times they become quite ill. The direct benefit of this is reduced visits to healthcare practitioners, reduced costs and fewer expensive drugs,” says Dr. Higgs.

Sharing the same sentiments, Amanda Glassman of Global Health Policy believes mobile health - the use of mobile phones to deliver health care products, treatments and services - enables patients to receive real-time public health warnings.

It is critical to note that the benefits are not limited to managing patients only but the flexibility of mobile communications is shifting the landscape of health information-sharing, playing an increasingly important role in strengthening health systems.

Patricia Mechael, executive director of the United States based mHealth Alliance believes the increased adoption of mobile health solutions could save lives across the entire healthcare delivery chain since using mobile devices to collect and share health data can make healthcare cheaper, faster and more equitable.

Erica Kochi of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF’s) New York-based Innovation Unit concurs with Mechael and adds that the mobile platform is important for the work of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

“I think the mobile platform is incredibly important for the work of NGOs and development in general. It allows us to expand the reach of the programmes we have and create efficiencies within them,” remarks Kochi.

To make the promise of mobile health a reality, Jody Ranck, lead author of ‘Health Information and Health Care: The Role of Technology in Unlocking Data and Wellness’ said that key stakeholders - from ministries and nongovernmental organisations to the private sector - must prioritise mobile health training for healthcare workers so that they understand both health systems and modern ICT technologies.

“Mobile health is not purely a question of technology.

“For mobile devices to work at their best, health systems will have to be transformed, and the changes will require managerial and organisational innovation.

“Front-line health workers to policymakers and donors must start to facilitate data-sharing through information and communication technology and mobile technologies now. The future of healthcare for the world’s most vulnerable population depends on it,” comments Ranck.

Furthermore, to ensure successful mobile health interventions, mobile penetration needs to increase so that both the patients and mobile health enablers are always connected.

An integrated approach is therefore required for Africa to fully benefit from mobile health projects and programmes.

According to a United Nations (UN) report, it is important to equip health workers with mobile health skills to enable them to communicate effectively.

Without wasting time, Africa must embrace modern ICT platforms to improve her health delivery system since developments in modern ICT are key to improving the ease and efficiency of health data flows, ultimately giving the continent greater and more equitable access to health services.