Donate Used Phones and Help Health Workers Save Lives

Hope Phones, IntraHealth, and Medic Mobile Collaborate on Phone Donation
Campaign to Support Health Workers in Africa

IntraHealth International is launching a partnership with Hope Phones and Medic Mobile to provide mobile phones to African health workers who offer maternal and child health services, including obstetric consultations, safe deliveries, family planning, and malaria and HIV prevention and treatment.

The group is running a national campaign to collect used phones which will be traded in allowing Hope Phones to purchase low cost phones for the project.  Mobile phones will be made available at no cost to health centers participating in the initiative. Local community-based health committees have agreed to cover the costs of airtime.

The critical global shortage of more than four million health workers means those health workers in place are playing an increasingly important role in meeting the health needs of their communities.

Health workers, especially those in remote areas, equipped with mobile phones can transmit and receive up-to-the-minute health information that can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency, improving the overall quality, effectiveness and impact of health care in underserved locations.

Please click here for an IntraHealth shipping label PDF, or request bulk collection materials from http://hopephones.org/get-collection-materials/.

(In the "Organization" field, be sure to write "IntraHealth".)

IntraHealth and the Senegalese Ministry of Health are using a simple mobile information system based on Medic Mobile, a free, open-source software platform that enables large-scale, two-way text messaging. The software was customized for the project in partnership with RAES, the African Network for Health Education. Providers send health data via cell phones to a centrally supported automated response server in Dakar, where it is analyzed by Ministry of Health staff. 

 “This project allows us to increase the impact and reach of health workers exponentially,” said Rodio Diallo, IntraHealth’s country representative in Senegal. “With cell phones and a well constructed health information system, we can transmit and receive critical information faster and more efficiently, saving resources, saving lives and building capacity.”

Hope Phones is the brainchild of Medic Mobile co-founder Josh Nesbit who launched the initiative after witnessing the growing impact of cell phones in global health work. “Every cell phone given to health workers connects patients to a medical clinic. A $10 cell phone will give 50 families access to emergency medical care, health information, transport services, and clinic resources,”  said Nesbit. “One used Blackberry will allow us to purchase three to five cell phones for health workers, bringing more families onto the health grid via SMS.”

The value of each donated handset allows Medic Mobile to purchase appropriate mobile phones for health workers. The Hope Phones campaign provides free shipping and recycling solutions for individuals and collection partners, and the value of recycled phones is tax-deductible.

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About the Partners:

Hope Phones is a mobile phone collection campaign aimed at supporting mobile health initiatives at medical clinics in the developing world. Mobile health - the provision and coordination of health-related services via mobile communications - is blossoming in response to a global shortage of healthcare workers and the demonstrated impact made by mobile tools. Hope Phones is endorsed by the mHealth Alliance, which includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the United Nations Foundation. Medic Mobile (formerly FrontlineSMS:Medic) is an nonprofit organization advancing rural healthcare networks in the developing world through the implementation of mobile technology. Its first pilot project distributed cell phones to community health workers in 100 rural villages in Malawi, saving thousands of dollars in travel and hospital costs and doubling the number of patients treated for tuberculosis in the catchment area. Stories covering Medic Mobile/FrontlineSMS:Medic have been featured by CNN, Discovery Channel news, the BBC, The Guardian, PC World and Reuters. IntraHealth International is a US-based non-profit organization currently leading USAID‘s largest project In Global Health Workforce, Systems Strengthening. The organization has served the public health needs of developing countries for 30 years.  IntraHealth’s mission is to create sustainable, accessible health care by strengthening health workers and the systems that support them. IntraHealth receives funding from the US Agency for International Development, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, private foundations, corporations and individuals who support our mission. The IntraHealth OPEN Initiative focuses on support, training, collaboration and local innovation in open source solutions to global health issues.   RAES (Reseau Africain de l’Education pour la Santé) implements projects based on an integrated and innovative application of ICT to strengthen health and education programs and institutes.

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