Institute For The Future

Hope Phones a Signal of Mobile Health Experimentation

In the recently released IFTF report entitled, Booting Up Mobile Health: From Medical Mainframe to Distributed Intelligence, we forecast that there will be high levels of experimentation and innovation in mobile health devices and services emerging from the Global South.  We expect poorer nations, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, to develop into the main proving ground for decentralized, mobile models of health care delivery.  This is not only due to the rapid diffusion of mobile technology, but also because 20th-century models of centralized, institutionally managed health care are not scalable outside major cities in many parts of the developing world.

 

To provide an example of the innovative experimentation already underway, on May 18th, FrontlineSMS:Medic launched Hope Phones, a nationwide mobile phone collection campaign supporting mHealth programs at medical clinics in over 30 countries..  Led by Stanford student Josh Nesbit, Hope Phones asks people to donate their phones to a wireless device recycling center.  The Wireless Source places a value on the old phones, enabling Hope Phones to purchase usable, recycled cell phones for health care workers. Relying on FrontlineSMS:Medic, a mass messaging program developed by Ken Banks, these phones serve as critical tools for health workers in Africa.