Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Cell phones and health in the developing world
Jan Chipchase is a "user anthropologist" for Nokia, the Finnish cell phone company; he travels the globe to study how people use and think about cell phones. A recent New York Times Magazine article profiles Jan and examines the role of cell phones in the developing world. It notes that today, there are more than 3.3 billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide and 80 percent of the world’s population now lives within range of a cellular network. By the end of 2006, 68 percent of the world’s mobile subscriptions were in developing countries.
The article points out how cell phone are already being used to deal with health issues in these countries:
Text messaging, or S.M.S. (short message service), turns out to be a particularly cost-effective way to connect with otherwise unreachable people privately and across great distances. Public health workers in South Africa now send text messages to tuberculosis patients with reminders to take their medication. In Kenya, people can use S.M.S. to ask anonymous questions about culturally taboo subjects like AIDS, breast cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, receiving prompt answers from health experts for no charge.
The intersection of mobile technology and health will be the focus of our Fall 2008 Conference, "Mobile Health in a World of Open Connectivity." We encourage you to share your thoughts on the subject with us.