how mobile technology can positively impact health care issues

Project Masiluleke - Pop!Tech 2008

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Cell phones changed everything in emerging markets. Isolated communities got a taste of access and upward mobility they’d never known before. Entire economies shifted as people were able to leapfrog roadblocks to communication. Now mobile technology is promising to transform healthcare in the same way.

Project Masiluleke will start that revolution. In a historic partnership between frog design, Pop!tech, iTeach, Praekelt, Aricent, Nokia Siemens and a number of other collaborators, Project Masiluleke (which means "lend a helping hand" in Zulu) is using mobile technology to tackle the worst HIV epidemic in the world in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where infection rates are over 40%.

This is not the first attempt to address the HIV problems in KwaZulu Natal, but after sending a team to South Africa to do extensive research on the ground with local experts, we believe it will be the most effective.

frog is envisioning a solution that uses mobile technology in three crucial ways: 1) to encourage usage of low-cost diagnostic tools; 2) to walk patients through the testing process; and 3) to guide them into care should they need it, and encourage healthy preventative behaviors even if they don’t.

Project Masiluleke will offer an innovative distribution model that combines existing, low-cost diagnostic technologies such as saliva and blood tests with mobile support services in a region where mobile adoption rates are approaching 90%. And, crucially, this new solution will provide a level of privacy and anonymity essential to encouraging participation among men who typically elude the system.

Project Masiluleke launched its first phase on the first of October when a text message was sent to 1 million phones - the largest-ever use of mobile messaging to address HIV.

This launch phase is an important step, but a first step. Our goal is to show how mobile technology can positively impact health care issues in Africa so we can build a series of alliances that bring together mobile operators and distributed diagnostics on a global scale.

At frog, we see a future in which local health care providers, NGOs, and government agencies can log onto a website and configure a diagnostic solution tailored to their needs in large volumes and at an extremely cost-effective price. They will be able to increase access to diagnostic tools and regimens as well as prove their effectiveness in some of the most remote and under-served regions on earth.

“This concept kit holds so much promise. The depth of user research and understanding is impressive. The design solution is elegant in its simplicity and use of materials. I hope we get the opportunity to see how it works in the field.”
--Claudia Kotchka, Affiliate IDSA, vice president, design innovation and strategy, Procter & Gamble

“Thorough research leads to sensible packaging design that helps to stop the AIDS pandemic in S. Africa. This utilizes every element of the packaging to the maximum use for communication, storage and transportation. The system also connects the user to online help. Packaging design could help elevate humanity.”
--Eric Chan, IDSA, president, ECCO Design