mHealth And Users - Jesse Coleman

Users of mHealth in Southern Africa: A Look at Tanzania, Zambia & South

AfricaJesse Coleman

[email protected]

Research Masters of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

Overview Who am I? Mobiles in Developing World mHealth

Past Future

Current Research

J. ColemanmHealth in Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa

Who Am I? Canadian 6 years working in IT Research Masters of Social Sciences @

University of Amsterdam Thesis topic: mHealth in Southern Africa


Mobiles in Global South mBanking

M-PESA in Kenya (and Tanzania) Relatively common now

mAgricultural (information) Market updates

mActivism Zimbabwe elections

mGovernence 60% of governmental services in India

Problem of operationalisation? South Africa

mEducationJ. Coleman

mHealth in Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa

mHealth: Mobiles and Healthcare

Already commonly used Wireless Health Care Report on 101 medical uses of

cell phones (2006)

M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems

Voxiva – HealthWatch/HealthNet US, Peru, Rwanda, India Phones, mobiles, PDA’s, fax, radio and internet Management, communication, administration,

collaboration, research Graphical output


Past of mHealth in Global South

Highlight on India Used PDA’s to enable community based health

workers to collect data, have a support system for immunisation management and enable collaboration and process planning

Example of NON-locally applicable solution Various around the world

Discussed in UN Mobile Applications on Health and Learning

Quantitative studies Iluyemi et al, 2006 & 2007 Cell-Life, 2007 & 2008


Future of mHealth - 1

•Microscope in a mobile phone

"The [microscope] is truly compact--it could be put in a cell phone--and it can use just sunlight for illumination, which makes it very appealing for Third-World applications.”

-Changhuei Yang, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Caltech

Future of mHealth - 2

•Portable wireless medical scanner

Portable scanners “could open up whole new avenues of health care for the developing world…. Health professionals in rural clinics could affordably get the tools they need to properly diagnose and treat their patients.”

- Boris Rubinsky, Professor of Bioengineering, Berkeley

Current Research

mHealth in Southern Africa: A Focus on Users 3 months in South Africa, Tanzania & Zambia

Utilise STS concepts to look at users Look at systems of accountability Looking for mHealth projects everywhere! Why mHealth? ‘Development’, Technology, and Health

Look for locally applicable solutions Share knowledge so no reinvention of wheel


mHealth Examples Zambia

MSF Camp Orphanage

Tanzania Telesurgery D-Tree Datadyne – EpiSurveyor/EpiHandy

South Africa SimPILL Nurses Helping Nurses

More…


Case Study’s


Cell-Life 2000: Home-based and after-care of HIV+ patients Now:

SMS for needs and information delivery Data collection (open ROSA)

Medical Research Council of South Africa mHealth for Students project

Creating WAP portal for HIV/AIDS info Information, games, wall papers, music and interactive chat

Case Study’s (cont’d)

Clyral Mobile Researcher MRC Baseline Study

37 000 households, 24 researchers, 4 months MSRC & Paraffin Safety Association of South Africa

Hospitals, Clinics & Private Practices Mostly unaware of mHealth Others totally understand

Appointment reminders Image transfer Mass messaging to doctors


Case Study’s (cont’d)

Health24.com WAP information portal

No games, music, wall-papers or chat More general health info

Written by doctors

Tanya Bosch Professor of Media Studies @ University of Cape

Town Wrote about mHealth

Covers other projects Stresses need to focus on users now


Thank You

Jesse Coleman

[email protected]