Background• India is 70% rural

• Most healthcare is city-based– Local MDs are stretched to capacity

• Limited access to affordable licensed doctors

• Public Health Center (PHC) in villages open only 6 hr/day during work hours

Challenges• Easy and affordable access to healthcare

• Access to license medical practitioners

• Limited access to medical information

• Expensive transportation from villages to city hospitals

Mobile phone technology provides a platform for access to care

Why Mobile Phones• Compact, portable and widely

accessible

• Proven effective internationally

• Any literate villager can become the Village Health Director (VHD)

– Does not limit scalability

• Transportation costs minimized

•24/7 access to free medical services

•Minimal time commitment

•Doctors need only 1 min to reply

•Contacts are village residents•No need for traveling health workers

•Low cost• < Rs. 1 ($0.02) per message

•Lowers future costs through preventative medicine

•Discourages unlicensed practitioners

How Does it Work - Health Care Access: Five Simple Steps

Sick/injured patient contacts Village Health

Director (VHD) who has a mobile phone

VHD sends SMS to Communication

Control Centre (CCC) laptop in hospital

CCC doctor responds through system,

offering immediate first aid advice

CCC sends ambulance to bring patient to hospital for free of

charge

Ambulance returns patient to village

IF PROBLEM IS SEVERE

1 2 3

4 5

*MH has already piloted this program in India for three weeks*

MH Has Already Piloted This Program In IndiaUdaipur, Rajasthan

Pilot Stats

•Ran for 25 days in 8 villages

•Served 64 patients

•Together, these 64 patients saved 80 full working days

•Avg earns $0.80/day

•Approx $1/PCH visit

Case StudiesDate Initial SMS Response SMS with MH Action Taken If No MH

7/8/200912:50

38 year old female for 3 days has been having a

headache. From yesterday she has had vomiting, diarrhea. She

has had diarrhea 15 times until now.

Take paracetamal 2x a day after eating. Also take the pill ranidon 3x a day and the pill Furazolidone 3x a day. Also mix ORS powder in water. Do all this for 3

days.

Patient was informed of the medications she needed to take to cure

the headache, vomiting, and diarrhea

If the vomiting and diarrhea continued,

there would have been a likelihood of dehydration.

7/11/200922:47

M 9 year old child’s finger got cut by a blade. A little

bit of blood came out. There is a bit of a cut.

Put povidin ointment on the cut and wrap a

bandage around it. Do this for 5 days. You can get a

free injection at your village government

hospital.

Immediate first aid treatment from

provided first aid box

Possible infection of cut, potentially leading

to gangrene

7/15/200923:01

18 year old male’s finger got fractured from a

falling pan. It is not a big hurt. The finger is not

moving.

Go to a nearby hospital and get an X-ray done by

a doctor.

Patient was informed of necessity of medical treatment and visited village Public Health

Center

Fracture could possibly worsen and result in permanent handicap

without treatment

Keshu• 12 yr-old boy with 8-year old

burn that went untreated

• Resulted in gangrene and cancer

• Could have been prevented if a system like MH had been present

Keshu

Cost Effectiveness• Low-cost – proven

economical

• Save villagers MD cost of private visits

• Long-term cost structure is efficient

$7,500

$43,506

$26,809-summer budget-needed June 1st

-2010 budget-needed October 1st

-raised before 2010

$22,500

Funding Progress for 2010:

Scalability & Sustainability• The MH program is easy to scale

– Most villages have cell phone connectivity and if not, will so in the next few years

– Professional Health Workers are not needed• Any literate villager can be trained and it opens up hundreds of

villages that can have this service

• Options to creating a sustainable model– Village governments pay for the service in their village– Patients pay a negligible amount– Partner with local cell phone company– Micro financing VHDs

Improved Access to Health Care

MH’s integration of Information Technology into the framework of hospitals creates sustainable health care

Expansion Will Impact Thousands

• Program successfully piloted in 8 villages in Summer 2009• In July, we will travel to 50 villages, connecting 50,000 people

www.mobilizinghealth.wordpress.com

Treatment – Access - Prevention