MobileHealth: Healthcare Getting More Portable for Developing World?

HealthApps and
 hospital workflow
improvements 

Much that the mobile phone industry has caught attention of many  investors to think of  the developing world as a potential market,  the health sector sees this as a golden bullet to healthcare solutions especially in developing world. Mobile phone apps that could help in clinical decision support, data collection and sharing or  mobile-phone-sized and technology compatible gadgets that could be carried and synched on GSM, CDMA technologies widely available now in these countries are a promising solution.

A recent study has shown that there will be 1.4 billion people with smartphones worldwide by 2015, and 500 million of them will be using mobile health applications, (research2guidance).  Smartphones will be the catalyst to bring mobile healthcare (R2G).  Though the huge numbers of smart-phones are  in developed world, as compared to the emerging market, the solutions that the same applications can play are immense in the later especially in the rate at which the technology is now used and widely adopted. 

Its to my view that the right market for healthcare investments in Africa should target this market. While most of the hospital equipments have been huge, expensive and almost imposible to deploy newer innovations like Mobisante's Smartphone-based ultrasound gives a promise to healthcare systems in developing world. 

This gadget, a size of a mobile phone project to  cost USD 5,000-10,000 at its initial price is awaiting regulatory approvals is likely to be affordable to remote hospitals and would save more lives.

Healthcare solutions models that will be cheap to acquire, easy to deploy, aren't energy intensive or can exploit rapidly expanding mobile phone technologies offer an easy and clear way to healthcare delivery and access.

Its a matter of time before systems geared into exploiting this model will be deployed in Africa to solve our impending problems.