South Africa is leading the way in
launching mobile health (mHealth) services with some of the most
successful and best known mHealth initiatives having been developed
in this country. This is according to Andrea Monteiro, director of
Mobile Health Africa, which will gather the leading minds in the
industry in Johannesburg in May.
“Africa suffers more than 24% of the
global burden of disease”, says Andrea, “but has an average of
only two doctors per 10,000 people – a shocking statistic. It means
that providing the majority of people in Africa with healthcare is a
major challenge”. She says the evolution of mHealth services in
Africa is enabling the drastic improvement of the healthcare
infrastructure: “In its most basic form it will provide access to
healthcare advice and information even in the most remote parts
Africa”.
According to the Mobile Health Africa
director, South Africa represents the ideal platform for the
deployment and evolution of mHealth services. She explains: “The
country has a brilliant telecoms infrastructure, both in terms of
service provisioning and technology and is home to several
entrepreneurial NGOs currently investing in mobile technologies. On a
social level, mobile penetration rates are very high, and other
mobile services such as mobile money/mobile banking are already well
established and used successfully on a day-to-day basis”.
The objective is to
evolve pilots to successful live mHealth deployments. Mobile Health
Africa 2012 will provide the perfect platform for the establishment
of the business models and partnerships needed to build sustainable
and scalable mHealth services throughout Africa. The event will
feature presentations from organizations and companies that are
leading the development of mHealth initiatives on the continent.
Mobile Health Africa 2012 is part of
the Connected Africa Forum, which will showcase the evolution of
mobile lifeline services and applications in Africa, and highlight
the evolving intersection between mobile money, mobile health and
mobile agriculture.
More details
(Source: PR. Com)