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mhealth in developing countries

The potential of mobile telephony to bring health care to the majority
Acute and emerging epidemiological challenges are encouraging public sector to welcome and support the development of increasingly innovative health care initiatives. Given that nearly 70 out of every 100 people carry a mobile phone in the region, if the easy-to-use mobile platform can be applied to health care to contribute to increased equity, mobile care could also contribute to improved clinical outcomes and productivity, as well as to better public health monitoring and education.

Oh yeah! we know about the potentials but then where does mhealth exactly fit in? Is it for Prevention?- Disease management or Real time monitoring?..

Actually Mobile Health is gonna be everything- Mobile health is a recently coined term, largely defined as health practice supported by mobile devices. For purposes of this note, mobile health practice includes public health, clinical medicine, and self-monitoring supported by mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).Currently active mobile health applications include the use of PDAs in collecting community health data; using the mobile phone to deliver health care information to practitioners, patients, and nonpatients; and real-time monitoring for citizens, both patients and nonpatients.Mobile health services tend toward preventive care and support for wellness, essentially helping individuals take care of their health before they become patients.

Ok! So if we talk about India what will support its growth, PPP?

Acute and emerging epidemiological and demographic challenges to health care systems are pressing the public sector to welcome and support the development of increasingly innovative approaches and initiatives. Emerging fields in health care include biotechnology (gene therapy, etc.), nanotechnology (instrumental in drug delivery), and information and communication technologies (mobile health). Together these offer a basket of new tools to address health care issues.

Need of the Hour?
The potential benefit of the mobile phone as a tool in widening access and improving health care is clear. Increasing penetration, combined with a wider range of possibilities for communication and an easy-to-use platform, allows access to less technology-literate groups.
So as the increasing subscriber base is in rural India, there is pressure to bring on best value benefits to the rural Consumer. No wonder Nokia Life tools Agri services forecasting weather to farmers and fishermen is such a hit. The mobile market in rural India has significant potential with number of subscribers anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 32% during 2009 to 2012. When we talk about bad terrains , climate and remotely located areas. More than Mobile commerce, More than Location based services- The prime and the most important are Occupation related VAS (that's why lifetools is a hit) and Healthcare Value add services.
I think that's the way to go ahead...Need and supply....

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