Challenges of Mobile Health Applications in Developing Countries - E-Healthcare Systems and Wireless Communications - page 7

Figure 1. Worldwide mobile subscribers 2000-2010

A recent UN report entitled “mHealth for De-
velopment” (United Nations, 2008) categorizes
the mHealth field into 6 distinct areas:
Education and awareness , which uses mobile
phones to send health alerts to subscribers to
make them more aware of disease symptoms and
treatment options relevant to their health history
and geographic area. Project Masiluleke in South
Africa is an example of a project in this area. It
uses text messaging to build awareness about
AIDS and encourages testing and treatment to
halt the disease's spread. Due to the social stigma
attached to the disease, using mobile phones allows
a private setting for interested parties to gain more
awareness about the disease. Over a million calls
have been answered relating to the disease and that
these answers are provided using local languages
has been particularly well received. There are
various similar projects in Mexico (e.g., Vidanet
and Cardionet), India (Freedom HIV/AIDS),
and many other developing countries. Some use
interactive games to educate people as this has
been shown to be a good way to sustain interest.

mHealth helpline projects allow users to call
a helpline number to get medical counseling and
advice. There are various such implementations
across the globe.
Diagnostic support, treatment support, and
training : Applications in this domain focus on
providing health care workers training in diag-
nosing patients and to support medical experts
and hospitals in their activities. Some mobile ap-
plications in this area make use of decision trees
to ascertain the exact disease and treatment. For
example, the Tele-doc program in India equips
health workers with mobile hand-held devices,
allowing them to communicate with doctors using
a web application, e.g., in order to obtain medi-
cation or to obtain help in diagnosing patients.
Similar programs, such has TRACnet in Rwanda
and Nacer in Peru, have also been implemented
along similar lines.
Disease surveillance and outbreak tracking :
These mHealth applications rely on mobile
phones' ability to transmit data quickly and reliably
with high efficiency. Data concerning diseases like