Recently I listened to an NPR show about how technology is being junked at an increasingly rapid pace. Everyone wants the newest phone, pad, etc… The recomendation was to reuse as much as possible and callers gave info about women’s shelters, etc… that reuse phones.
This made me think about equipping community health workers in rural Laos with phones. A link to the capital, where there are hospitals. But I wasn’t sure if this would actually help. This article from Forbes shed a little light on the potential efficacy of such a solution:
It exists in the form of Medic Mobile, a new initiative that aims to transform healthcare in the developing world through simple SMS. The reality for many people in remote regions of developing nations is a 100-mile trek by foot or oxcart to see the nearest doctor. So Medic Mobile has equipped over 100 community health workers with mobile devices to enable them to treat patients more effectively and keep up health and safety advice between appointments. The outcome is that through simple mobile technology, Medic Mobile in six months has doubled the number of patients treated with Tuberculosis in rural Malawi. It has achieved this by increasing the flow of data through mobile networks. Medical professionals are able to supply patients with information on medical supplies and improved safety advice that they, in turn, are able to access through mobile technology and external information sources.
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