10 Examples of Mobile Health Around the World

The majority of people in developing nations don’t have access to health care providers, basic antibiotics or even clean water—but many do have mobile phones and can access care through advances in mobile health (mHealth). Innovations range from low-cost medical devices that attach to mobile phones to new delivery models that give patients access to health care providers through short message service (SMS), photos or videos. Let’s take a look at 10 transformative examples from around the globe.

About the author: Dr. Joseph Kim is the president of MCM Education, a publishing company that provides continuing education for physicians, nurses and pharmacists, and the founder of MedicineandTechnology.com, MedicalSmartphones.com and MobileHealthComputing.com.

Diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis, common in the developing world, require medications that quickly lose efficacy if patients skip even one dose. Some countries therefore mandate “directly observed therapy,” or DOT, which requires health care professionals to directly observe patients taking medications. This generally means a patient goes to a health clinic every day, waits in line, take pills and then leaves. Mobile phones let DOT happen at home. For example, the Video Cell Phone: Directly Observed Therapy program, a collaboration among the UCSD Division of Global Public Health and the TB Control Programs of San Diego County and the city of Tijuana, Mexico, let patients record and send mobile videos of themselves taking TB medications to DOT workers located elsewhere.