The U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) www.usaid.gov and global communications operator Orange www.orange.com/en/home have formed a new alliance to develop innovations in mHealth to help developing countries in Africa. The announcement was made at the Global mHealth Forum co-located with the 2014 mHealth Summit held in December in the Washington D.C. area.
The goal of the USAID/Orange alliance is to create a framework for easily replicating important mobile services in a number of African countries throughout the region. USAID and Orange are starting to develop a regional platform with mobile applications that ministries of health, donors, and NGOs will be able to use for consumer education, health worker tools, and data collection.
“With the increasing use and decreasing cost of mobile phones, leveraging mobile phone technology to accelerate access to health information and services is a game changer,” said Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendex, USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Global Health. “USAID’s partnerships with private companies, such as Orange, enable us to have a larger impact in a cost-effective manner.”
The first phase of the health system-strengthening program will use the expertise, technology, and local resources of both organizations to improve quality of care and ensure that health services are readily accessible to the public at large.
In some parts of Africa, much of the population lives in rural areas without easy access to healthcare or readily available means of transport. By using mHealth solutions, medical professionals will be able to flag potential problems early and provide the necessary care to reduce risks to mother and child.
Future services will use integrated mHealth platforms and Orange mobile networks to communicate alerts and share resources on family planning and maternal health. A maternal mHealth solution will provide medical practitioners access to the latest tools and medical information by being able to monitor a mother’s pregnancy from a distance.
Healthcare workers will be able to use the technology to share medical expertise, collaborate with specialists regardless of location, and improve patient care. In addition, the public will be able to access health information via mHealth platforms.