Bharti Airtel is partnering with global
mobile trade association the GSMA, to support its cross-ecosystem mHealth partnership
programme.
The initiative is designed to
provide a range of services to women and children, with a particular focus on
nutrition, across 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The mobile health ecosystem partnership,
developed by the GSMA, was announced in June 2014 in collaboration with
partners providing various services, including Gemalto, Hello Doctor,
Lifesaver, Mobenzi, Mobilium, Omega Diagnostics and Samsung.
Collectively, the partnership will reduce barriers to handset ownership and connectivity
for consumers and health workers and aims to connect the mobile and health
industries to collaboratively develop commercially sustainable mHealth services
that meet public health needs. The initiative could have far-reaching impact,
given that there is a total annual, addressable market of 15.5 million pregnant
women and mothers with children under five years of age, according to GSMA
Intelligence.
Commenting on the partnership, Airtel
Africa CEO Christian de Faria said: “This partnership takes full advantage of
mobile technology to provide healthcare information and services in Sub-Saharan
Africa to support the scale-up of mHealth in nutrition, maternal and child
health. The partnership will leverage existing and new Airtel SIMs to allow
access to health content, health registration and data collection.”
“The GSMA mHealth programme is committed
to connecting the mobile and health industries to develop commercially
sustainable mHealth services that meet public health needs,” said Tom Phillips,
Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA. “We are working with companies such as Airtel
to deliver the objectives of the United Nations Every Women Every Child Global
Strategy, as well as the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, in the areas of
nutrition and maternal and child health. We call on mobile ecosystem players,
health providers, governments, NGOs, civil society and others to join this
initiative to create life-saving mobile health services.”
Through these commitments, Airtel, GSMA
and other partners aim to simplify the relationships between mobile and health
stakeholders, whilst maximizing the ubiquitous nature of mobile technology and
its capabilities for health providers and, ultimately, for patients. Health
content, patient registration, data collection and critical diagnostics will
increase the access to health care for vulnerable women and children across
Africa, while providing the delivery mechanism for mHealth services.
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