FrontlineSMS—mHealth
What Company Is Offering:
FrontlineSMS is a free software platform enabling large-scale, two-way text messaging using a laptop, mobile phones, and a GSM signal. Introduced as a valuable tool for rural healthcare providers in the Mobiles in Malawi pilot, FrontlineSMS is the centerpiece of an SMS network connecting remote CHWs and their patients to a hospital and its resources. Local ownership, the extreme usability of FrontlineSMS, low-cost and available technology, and the CHWs’ dedication to their communities produced a valuable program for a rural hospital serving 250,000 people.
Why It Could Work:
mHealth — driven by local ownership and appropriate technology. In the developing world, lack of infrastructure prevents community health workers from delivering efficient healthcare to rural areas. As health workers travel from clinics to reach isolated patients, they face substantial challenges in communicating medical information.
The mission of FrontlineSMS:Medic is to advance rural healthcare networks in the developing world through the implementation and innovation of sustainable, appropriate technologies delivered through mobile phones. The centerpiece of their system is FrontlineSMS, a free, open-source software program that enables large-scale, two-way text messaging using only a laptop, a GSM modem, and cell phones. Its classic implementation model places a laptop running FrontlineSMS in a central clinic and distributes cell phones to CHWs to coordinate care with patients in peripheral villages.
More at:http://medic.frontlinesms.com/
Tags: mobile health care
