20 Jan 2011 // Families in the Philippines uprooted by disaster have begun receiving text messages which they can cash like checks to buy food. The pilot project makes use of the widespread availability of mobile phones in the Philippines, which is known as the “texting capital of the world”.
The Philippines is one of the most phone-savvy countries in the world, but it’s also prone to violent storms and conflict, which force people from their homes and threaten them with hunger.
In emergencies like these, WFP often helps by setting up “Cash for Work” projects that help uprooted communities get back on their feet. With the cash people earn as they work on rebuilding homes and communities, they can buy the food they need.
Now, in the texting capital of the world, WFP is testing mobile phones as a way of distributing the cash.
“It’s like a digital wallet—almost like a bank account,” said WFP Country Director Stephen Anderson, who explained that giving participants cash in the place of food rations allows them to buy a wider variety of food in a way that favours the local economy.“Our survey shows that they are spending up to 70–80 per cent of the cash on food,” he added. “We think that’s a good thing.”
The “Stop Stock-Outs” campaign is based around a little-known, but devastating, problem. Medicine stock-outs - where local clinics and pharmacies run out of high-demand, crucial medicines - are a potentially lethal problem in a number of African countries, yet governments insist they don’t occur. The team behind the Stop Stock-Outs project set out to find a solution and asked themselves, ”What could be more powerful than a map which contradicts these government claims?”
Last year, activists in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia started surveying clinics in their respective countries, checking stock levels of essential medicines. After visiting clinics and pharmacies, activists report their results using their mobile phones through structured, coded text messages (SMS) – “x,y,z” – where the first number represented their country code (Kenya, Malawi, Uganda or Zambia), the second their district or city, and the third the medicine which they found to be out of stock. The messages are then visually displayed on an online map, showing specific reports by location and building up “hot spots” of activity. Within the first week alone, the team collected reports of 250 stock-outs of essential medicines. Because incoming data automatically populates the map, it represents an almost real-time picture of stock-outs. After a successful launch and a week piloting the service, the “stock-out SMS number” has been distributed to medicine users throughout each country so that anyone with a mobile phone can send in a stock-out report. However, unlike reports from official, known data collectors, these messages will firstly be checked by staff at Health Action International before being posted up on the map. Then the government can’t deny it’s happening and the public pressure can really start.
Significantly more people in the developing world have access to mobile phones than to hospital beds. Mobile phone is accessible technology with high potential for creative solutions to some of the most important global health issues like AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB). mHealth can contribute to the accessibility of health, diagnostic and tracking of diseases, gathering data and training of medical staff.
Currently it’s central focus is applications and communication models like Text to Change (SMS based quiz). These kinds of initiatives are very accessible, low cost and simple in usage – addressing the needs of the end users.
But mHealth has also another area that is not yet well known and developed, but that is already being explored – hardware technology for mHealth. This field is so young, that there is not yet a name for its developments. At OMG we call them add-ons, some sources call them clip-ons, but they all stand for devices that can be connected to your phone to extend its capacities.
One example is NETRA (Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment) developed by the MIT Media Lab. It is a simple and affordable device (which can currently be produced for less than US$2) that can diagnose several eye conditions, replacing heavy and expensive equipment and making eye diagnostic technology accessible to people in developing countries.
Mobile phones, especially smart phones, are a combination of important features that even a computer can’t match - audio visual in/out put, text input, GPS and even internet. Although one can argue that a phone with all of these features isn’t that accessible, it should be taken to account that developments in the mobile phone industry alongside developments of add-on technology could make the mobile phone a replacement of essential and now expensive lab-equipment.
There are already inventions that are set to become mind-blowing breakthrough in public health and that require the phone to be equipped with just a simple camera for it to become a microscope that can detect diseases like malaria.
Text to Change (TTC) offers an interactive Mobile SMS Quiz with knowledge questions linked with a rewarding system (incentive). By means of this edutainment and this interactive way of communicating, the SMS Quiz is designed to raise and help resolve key issues around local development programs.
TTC is a non-profit organization that uses mobile phone technology to collect and disseminate health information. TTC has been one of the pioneers in using mobile phones for health monitoring and advocacy in Uganda reaching out to the general public at a large scale. TTC works demand driven and sets up complete programs with local and international partners. The aim of TTC is to make life saving knowledge easily available to the general public and especially to community and family level caregivers. TTC is specialized in interactive and incentive based SMS programs addressing a wide range of health issues such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Reproductive Health.
mHealth (also written as m-health or mobile health) is a term used for the practice of medical and public health, supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs, for health services and information.
mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices in collecting community and clinical health data, delivery of healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine).While mHealth certainly has application for industrialised nations, the field has emerged in recent years as largely an application for developing countries, stemming from the rapid rise of mobile phone penetration in low-income nations. The field, then, largely emerges as a means of providing greater access to larger segments of a population in developing countries, as well as improving the capacity of health systems in such countries to provide quality healthcare.Within the mHeath space, projects operate with a variety of objectives, including increased access to healthcare and health-related information (particularly for hard-to-reach populations); improved ability to diagnose and track diseases; timelier, more actionable public health information; and expanded access to ongoing medical education and training for health workers.
The mHealth Summit 2010 will be held in Washington DC from 8-10 November with more than 2000 key decision-makers from across the mobile health ecosystem registered to take part.
Today I took a closer look at the presentations put together for the 6 mobile phone applications developed for Kenya by the d.school students this year. For me 2 of the solutions stood out:
PillCheck (Kifaa cha Tenbe): a mobile application to help people find information on the availability and pricing of malaria drugs quickly. I like this solution because it tackles an essential need, the PSS is worked out well and the idea is presented very effectively using the 'prezi' web tool:
M-MAJI: a system that allows people to identify clean water sources in their community. I also think the presentation effectively demonstrates the need for the service and how the PSS works, although as a traditional PDF it is a bit less dynamic than the above presentation:
A group of d.school students recently returned from Kenya, where they spent 2 weeks working with Nokia Research Africa and the University of Nairobi to develop health-related mobile applications. The trip was the culmination of months of work in connection with a new class at the d.school, "Designing Liberation Technologies".
Starting in April, Stanford d.school students worked with computer science students at the University of Nairobi to identify the design needs of health care providers and low-income mobile phone users in Kenya. The students then developed prototypes of mobile applications to support delivery of health services in urban areas. In August, a group of students travelled to Nairobi to meet with NGO partners, test prototypes, and advance plans for the future.
Although relatively few Kenyans have heavy-duty, feature-rich smartphones like the iPhone, Kenyans make very sophisticated use of the technology available to them. For instance, it is not uncommon for Kenyans to own multiple SIM cards and swap them in and out of their phones as necessary to take advantage of favorable in-network and off-peak pricing structures.
By 2009, nearly 40% of the adult population in Kenya held an M-Pesa account, and the user base is still growing strong today. Originally intended to be a tool for making safe and secure payments, M-Pesa has gone on to do a lot more. By replacing cash, M-Pesa has solved a nagging security problem that chilled all kinds of financial activity in Kenya - including savings. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of Kenyans do not hold a brick-and-mortar bank account in their name, and M-Pesa is quickly taking the place of cash-stuffed mattresses. According to a recent study by several American economists, three quarters of M-Pesa users it to save money, and many M-Pesa users say it is the most important savings tool they have.
Building on the insights gained during their research, the 20 d.school students came up with the following applications:
mNote: an online archive for community health worker notes. This application empowers community health workers by preserving the flexibility and control they appreciate in their current paper notebooks, but adding digital knowledge management capabilities.
M-MAJI ("mobile water"): an electronic information system that allows people to use their mobile phones to identify clean water sources in their community. The application seeks to decrease the time and money spent searching for water, improve water quality, and foster vendor accountability by providing a mechanism for user feedback.
Babybank: a dedicated savings plan designed specifically for pregnant women in the slums of Nairobi. By leveraging a popular cell phone payment system, M-Pesa, the application aims to make savings easier, so that expecting mothers can afford the services that will keep themselves and their babies healthy.
Mazanick: an application to provide support and advice to pregnant women via SMS, with the aim of helping motivate them to attend prenatal appointments.
PillCheck (Kifaa cha Tenbe): a mobile application to help people in Kibera find information on the availability and pricing of malaria drugs quickly.
PatientMap: a system to make the waiting process in clinics more transparent, and to increase patient trust in the medical system.
Apps4Africa is a contest launched in July 2010 to highlight the talent of local developers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Across the region, the number of IT graduates and tech entrepreneurs is exploding, providing new opportunities to foster social and economic growth. The challenge was to find innovative technological solutions to everyday problems, and the winners were as follows:
1st Place // iCow, a voice-based mobile application that helps farmers track the estrus stages of their cows, enabling farmers everywhere to better manage breeding periods as well as monitor cow nutrition leading up to the calving day.
2nd Place // Kleptocracy Fighters Inc. allows citizens to record and report real time information on government corruption. Reports can include: audio, video, text, and will be forwarded to legal and media partners to help publish cases of corruption.
3rd Place // Mamakiba is a patient-facing SMS savings calculator and prepayment tracking tool specifically designed to help low-income women save and prepay for their maternal health needs such as ante-natal care and clinical delivery.
Honorable Mention // Fogs Funeral Announcements, an application for generating death and funeral announcements via sms, as radio and newspaper are costly in the region. Fog will allow users to ensure this news reaches friends, family, former schoolmates and colleagues – an important Kenyan custom.
