Even in the harshest terrain, mHealth’s public health workers can find cell phone service in specific sections of their communities. The result? Bringing health care to people who need it most
It's what we call a leap frogging technology, right the ability of this wireless connectivity to penetrate areas where we know the land line infrastructure or the hard line infrastructure is still decades away, we now circumvent that need to build these very complex infrastructural systems because we can implement wireless network that has a much broader coverage.
That's not to say things are perfect, there are large swaths of Sub-Saharan Africa where connectivity is extremely poor. In South Asia, we've got a much higher population density and the reach in penetration of mobile technology is I think a lot greater than parts of sub-Saharan Africa but to the extent that individuals can find signals in their communities.
We've been able to, even in harsh territories like Northern Nepal where we're talking about very hilly mountainous terrain. Some of our front line health workers are able to climb to the top of the hill, get a signal and send data when it's necessary.
Alain Labrique, MD, of the Global Disease Epidemiology and Control Program of the Department of International Health, explains what mHealth technology is and how smartphones can be used to make healthcare more affordable and effective.
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