The Economist (16 Apr 2009) ran a special report on technology and health: "the next great technology revolution in health care is even now bubbling up from the villages of Africa and may in time benefit the rich world too. It is built on the astounding success of the most famous of all leapfrog technologies: mobile phones."
Examples given include:
Examples given include:
- HIV/AIDS in South Africa: "So great is the stigma attached to the disease that some four-fifths of victims in the region will not venture into their local clinic to get an HIV test [...] Using a form of text messaging similar to SMS, [Project Masiluleke] sends out up to a million short messages a day, encouraging the recipients in their local language to contact the national AIDS hot line. The response has been spectacular, especially among young men who have proved hard to reach in the past. When people ring, they are often told about clinics outside their immediate community [...]"
- "In Uganda, Text to Change uses an SMS-based quiz to raise awareness among phone users about HIV/AIDS that brought a 40% increase in the number of people getting tested."
- "A study in Thailand in 2007 showed that compliance with a drug regimen to tackle TB jumped to over 90% when patients were sent daily text reminders to take their pills on time."
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