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Cape Town - Technology can make a significant impact in healthcare and on Monday, the GSMA announced a new ecosystem to drive mobile technologies to drive health in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"It's worth noting that in Africa we almost 900 mHealth services that we at the GSMA have tracked on the GSMA mHealth tracker. There's a huge amount of effort and services being launched, but not a huge amount of scalability or success of those services," Craig Frederick, programme director for mHealth Mobile for Development at the GSMA told Fin24.
The organisation partnered with MTN, Samsung, Gemalto, Hello Doctor, Lifesaver among others to launch the comprehensive programme that seeks to utilise technology to make an impact on healthcare in developing countries.
"The companies in this partnership are working to deliver the objectives of the United Nations Every Women Every Child Global Strategy, as well as the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, in the areas of nutrition and maternal and child health," said Tom Phillips, GSMA chief regulatory officer.
The US has set 2015 as the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals to improve civilisation.
Caution
Three out of the eight broad targets relate to health and the UN reported some success with a decline in malaria deaths by 25%, lower incidence of HIV/Aids and TB treatment that has saved 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.
The GSMA partnership will launch in a number of countries including SA, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia in September 2014, with Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania to follow.
MTN has embedded SIM cards sold with free mHealth services and Samsung has discounted devices targeted at countries where the partnership is targeted.
"This partnership heralds a new era in the delivery of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa, where currently access to even the most basic of health services remains the worst in the world," said Pieter Verkade, MTN Group chief commercial officer.
The initiative is nevertheless cautious about the extent to which it can meet the MDGs as the challenges posed are large.
"We acknowledge that with the timeline for the Millennium Development Goals quickly creeping up on us, we have, as of today, 549 days to that end goal with a huge impact still to achieve," said Frederick.
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"It's worth noting that in Africa we almost 900 mHealth services that we at the GSMA have tracked on the GSMA mHealth tracker. There's a huge amount of effort and services being launched, but not a huge amount of scalability or success of those services," Craig Frederick, programme director for mHealth Mobile for Development at the GSMA told Fin24.
The organisation partnered with MTN, Samsung, Gemalto, Hello Doctor, Lifesaver among others to launch the comprehensive programme that seeks to utilise technology to make an impact on healthcare in developing countries.
"The companies in this partnership are working to deliver the objectives of the United Nations Every Women Every Child Global Strategy, as well as the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, in the areas of nutrition and maternal and child health," said Tom Phillips, GSMA chief regulatory officer.
The US has set 2015 as the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals to improve civilisation.
Caution
Three out of the eight broad targets relate to health and the UN reported some success with a decline in malaria deaths by 25%, lower incidence of HIV/Aids and TB treatment that has saved 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.
The GSMA partnership will launch in a number of countries including SA, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia in September 2014, with Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania to follow.
MTN has embedded SIM cards sold with free mHealth services and Samsung has discounted devices targeted at countries where the partnership is targeted.
"This partnership heralds a new era in the delivery of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa, where currently access to even the most basic of health services remains the worst in the world," said Pieter Verkade, MTN Group chief commercial officer.
The initiative is nevertheless cautious about the extent to which it can meet the MDGs as the challenges posed are large.
"We acknowledge that with the timeline for the Millennium Development Goals quickly creeping up on us, we have, as of today, 549 days to that end goal with a huge impact still to achieve," said Frederick.
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