Mobiles and Health: Our Current

Initiatives in Senegal

Christelle Scharff, PhD

Soda Niang-Samb, Noumounthi Diao, Balla Diop Dieng

SenMobile

senmobile@senmobile.com

http://facebook.com/senmobile

@senmobile

Problems

• Scenario 1: Mamadou's child is having a high fever and needs immediate medications but he does not know which pharmacy is open late at night. How can he find this information?

• Scenario 2: Assane does not sleep under a mosquito net and his children don’t either. How can this change?

• Access to health information, access to health care, health awareness, and prevention: these are common words when talking about health in developing countries.

Simple, local and sustainable

solutions for health

SMS Pharma de Garde

SMS Pharma de Garde provides information on pharmacies that

are open on nights and weekends by SMS

Premium service

How It Works Location & Operation Hours

Data about locations and

operation hours

Users

Pharmacies X, Y and Z in Dakar are open from 8 am to 11 pm on Sunday 3/3/2012

Query: pharma dakar

Answer: X, Y and Z are open from 8 am to 11 pm on Sunday 3/3/2012

Date: 3/3/2012

Server

SMS

Different means to

gather data

Community

;

Existing Solution and Future

We launched SMS Pharma in Senegal in June 2011 for users to know what pharmacies are open on nights and weekends

We are covering 13 cities: Dakar Centre1/Plateau1, Guediawaye, Kaolack, Louga, Mbour, Pikine, Thiès, Saly, St Louis, Tamba, Thiaroye, Tivaouane, et Yeumbeul

We have a community of 2600 members on facebook

Information is gathered and verified

Our goal is also to expand to more types of health facilities and propose other services by SMS

JeggePharma

• A free Web app for compatible Nokia phones (Series 40 Web apps) to know what pharmacies are open on nights and weekends

Pharmacies on a Map http://smspharmacie.com

Health and Children

We developed a series of mobile apps for children

Focus of the apps Sound Icons / Images / Colors Avoid text Instant feedback and

assessment Easy to use and good user

experience Makes learning fun Local content (culture,

language, curriculum) Link parent / teacher with

SMS

Apps are aligned with the curriculum Formes123 Lettres123 Chiffres123 EduCivic123 SuiteABC Suite123 Coleurs123 Sante123

Developed in Java ME to support a

wide range of phones

Sante123

Conclusions Simple steps in saving lives and improving health all together!

We are reaching users who are using their phones in different ways: SMS and apps

SMS works on all mobile devices without the need of applications or smartphones

Apps requires some additional steps to be adopted (data access, phone literacy)

SMS Pharma

Users receive results instantaneously

Users save time and money (i.e. no need to drive or take a taxi to find a pharmacy that is open)

Little learning curve of our solutions

Many users already know how to send SMS

The mobile applications are simple to use

Service can be used to broadcasting other health information for prevention (e.g. malaria awareness and anti-tobacco campaigns)

This solution is scalable, sustainable and adaptable in different countries