Foreign investment in African telecommunications infrastructure is steadily increasing, and this is hoped to drive the development of mobile health (m-health) solutions.
According to Johan Smith, director of the Africa Telecommunications Group, KPMG SA, many countries such as SA, Ghana and Pakistan are benefiting from m-health solutions.
“There is growing recognition that Africa is an investment destination. This is enabled by regulatory reforms to encourage development of the telecoms sector,” he adds.
Smith says: “Using their cellphones, patients can be in touch with their doctors and receive instant advice on their condition. This development illustrates an important advance in both the use of mobile phone technology and its intersection with social responsibility.”
He says this is particularly relevant where technological benefits are delivered to business and communities having limited or no access to communications infrastructure.
However, Smith says the mobile telephony sector still has a long way to go. “The continent has made advances in mobile banking; has recently made advances in healthcare; and will be making strides in catching up with the rest of the world, but there is no reason to assume that we will miss the telephony boat.”
According to Pyramid Research, more than 200 million m-health applications are in use today, and that number is expected to increase threefold by 2012.
Denise Culver, a Pyramid analyst, says m-health opens up opportunities for mobile network operators such as AT&T, BT, Orange, and Telefonica.
“Technology and telecommunications providers are well-positioned for developing, extending, and marketing m-health applications,” says Culver.
“Many of these players already have established relationships with healthcare providers and players,” she notes. “Additionally, they possess technology capabilities and consumer-brand assets that healthcare players lack.
“[Mobile operators] have the chance to create m-health solutions that combine voice, messaging, data, security, and other current offerings, which will increase customer loyalty and create value-added services,” adds Culver.
On the local front, MTN, in partnership with Sanlam, recently rolled out a healthcare call centre service called MTN CareConnect. Callers can contact the independently-operated call centre and speak to qualified health professionals for medical advice.
The mobile operator indicated that as part of its national roll-out, it will explore m-health services for high-demand ailments such as HIV, TB, diabetes and malaria.
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