mHealth @ m2m
mHealth is defined as “Mobile eHealth or mHealth broadly encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies as they are integrated within increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems.The field broadly encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies in health care delivery.”
At m2m, we’re rolling out several mobile phone based initiatives including advancing the quality of the relationship between the mentor mother and the client for mother baby pair tracking using smart phones, data collection in hundreds of locations using feature phones, and retrieving facility information. Most of the information is then leveraged to advance the quality of the program and development.
Basic mobile phones that cost around $10 a piece are used across the majority of the sites. Mobile phone penetration in Africa has grown from 16 million in 2000, to 500 million 2011, and expected to grow over 1 billion in 2016. An increase of 10% in mobile penetration can increase annual GDP growth rate as much as 1.2% in a developing country.
- 93% of mobile phone users feel safe
- 85% feel more independent
- 41% use their phones to increase income and professional opportunities
The majority of the countries in Africa still have little or no access to the internet:
*images + data taken from USAID infograph