ICT for development
Mobile phones: exceptional tools for HIV/AIDS, health, and crisis management
The role of mobile phones in in the scale-up of global health systems
Authors:
Richard Lester; Sarah Karanja
Publisher:
The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2008
This article, published by The Lancet, argues that with mobile telephones reaching people in Africa’s cities, towns, villages, and countrysides more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, they are perhaps one of the most promising emerging health systems tools which can build capacity around the HIV and AIDS response and filter into the wider global health.
The authors note that in the context of increasing access to and knowledge of how to use mobile phones, their use in health care needs to be explored. The authors report that in Pumwani, Kenya, a simple, low-cost mobile phone-based system has evolved that includes nurses sending weekly short message service (SMS) text messages to clients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to enquire how they are doing, and then triaging their responses according to the patients’ needs. Based on this initial pilot trial, the authors report that patients gave favourable feedback on the system, reporting that “it feels like someone cares”.
The authors contend that a mobile phone-based health system has the potential to be extremely flexible. Given that adherence issues with tuberculosis therapy and other chronic and semi-chronic disease management are very similar to HIV, the authors argue that they could be similarly supported through use of mobile technologies. Drawing from the experience in Kenya during the political crisis that followed the disputed presidential elections, the authors report on the usefulness of mobile phones in assuring referral and ongoing adherence counselling for ART.
In conclusion, mobile phones are being increasingly used in the scale-up of global health systems, and are under investigation for this purpose. In the face of the numerous challenges facing the health systems in developing countries, the potential of mobile phones must be explored and utilised to improve effectiveness and efficiency of health service delivery with the farthest possible reach.
