Sam Wertheimer is a Health editorial writer for Justmeans because he is excited about the opportunities for social innovation in the health sector. He currently works for the health policy group at a non-partisan think tank. His interests include health reform, health 2.0, social entrepreneurship, and his new surfboard. The views expressed in his column do not reflect those of Justmeans or any oth...
mHealth at MIT
Today's frontpage at nextbillion.net - one of my go-to sites for news on social entrepreneurship and foreign development - displays an article about students at MIT that are finding new ways to connect patients and medical care providers in developing nations through mobile phones.
One group of students designed phone software that allows patients or local nurses to send information on symptoms via text and picture messages to distant physicians for diagnoses and advice. They started a nonprofit called Moca. Another group consults with local organizations to help health workers start and sustain mobile phone health initiatives. These students founded the for-profit Click Diagnostics.
These efforts are called mHealth (for mobile health) and are a favorite of the United Nations Foundation and other international development groups. Although the MIT companies and other mHealth initiatives have already received attention in the popular press from outlets like CNN and the WSJ, connecting underserved patients to health services certainly qualifies as good work and warrants re-broadcasting here.
If you want to contribute to an mHealth initiative, check out Hope Phones. They bring donated mobile phones to health clinics worldwide.
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