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In today’s New York Times, there is an article about how mobile phones are being used in the field to assist health care workers in Rwanda in tracking diseases.

Operating through servers in Kigali that are owned by the South African telecommunications operator MTN, the Rwanda system gets field clinic reports via text message, a voice-call system or on the Internet using a computer or Internet-enabled cellphone.

Each time a new patient enters the system, the information is sent in, while weekly reports cover data like a clinic’s stocks of drugs, and monthly reports cover the number of patients under treatment. Clinics receive messages including the results of laboratory tests and drug recall alerts sent by the ministry of health.

This is part of a public-private initiative called _Phones for Health_ which builds on the success of the Rwanda project by branching out to 10 African countries.

Phones for Health will allow health workers in the field to use a standard Motorola handset equipped with a downloadable application to enter health data. Once entered, the data is transferred via a packet based mobile connection (GPRS) into a central database. If GPRS isn’t available, the software can use a SMS data channel to transmit the information . The data is then mapped and analyzed by the system, and is immediately available to health authorities at multiple levels via the web. The system also supports SMS alerting and other tools for communication with field staff.

“Rapid and accurate communications channels are crucial to tackling the many health problems faced by African countries and other parts of the developing world,” said Rob Conway, Chief Executive of the GSM Association. “The roll out of this health management software in Africa will clearly demonstrate how governments can exploit the expanding mobile infrastructure to enhance the well-being of their citizens.”

Relevance: Another example of how mobile phones are helping create a better Africa.