I
recently visited an old friend who just completed his one year National Youth
Services Corps at a remote village in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. Dr
Peter Adebiyi, a city boy who had lived his whole life in the comfort of Lagos
City, recounted his tale. “Owobupikin (as he fondly calls me), that village was
awesome!”
He
started his posting almost a year ago amid fears of a hostile reception, from
stories he heard about the community. On his first day reporting to the health
centre, he said “I was very late because I didn’t expect to see more than ten
people, but I saw about a hundred patients. I was so shocked that I almost
turned back.” He attended to about half of them and asked the remaining half to
come back the next day. Tuesday morning he was up and out early, ready for the
days’ work; but to his amazement he saw only two patients, a little kid who
came to dress his wound and a pregnant mother for her antenatal clinic. “What
went wrong? Was I so terrible the day before that the others decided to avoid
me” Further investigations revealed that Tuesdays was the major market day and
Fridays was the minor market day for the community. Dr Peter decided to visit
the ward councillor and other village heads, he wanted the health centre to run
efficiently and effectively. His plan was simple, let everyone know his clinic
days, let there be a working emergency contact number, separate antenatal
clinic and postnatal clinic days from others, start a health education day etc.
How would he do this he thought? He didn’t imagine himself visiting every home
in the community, then it came to him… Mobile Phone.
Dr
Peter, who uses a smart phone and a tablet, decided to setup a small group of
people headed by himself, the task was; “get every phone number of every
villager, arrange them according to sex, age, clinic days, pregnancy status,
family status etc. with all the phone numbers at his disposal, he went online
and registered for cheap bulk sms services, and decided that he, the nurses and
other healthcare workers would send weekly reminders for clinic days,
vaccination days, basic health tips (like hand washing, malaria prevention,
sexually transmitted diseases). He said, “What surprised me the most was that
they knew about Facebook, in fact, the youth association had a Facebook page”
he joined the page, there he would discuss with them health and other health related
issues, some would add him up and chat with him on personal health issues. With
all this going on, he had to still read and prepare for his professional exams,
he said “I had to download a lot of medical drug and disease apps plus read and
research a lot on the internet”. Sometimes, some of the younger members of the
community would quiz him about some information they read off the internet. He
said “by the time I was leaving, the community, the health centre was able to
generate its own funds from frequent use, clinic days where properly run,
health information was getting to the people and there was an overall improved
health care awareness in the community.
Mobile
Phones have become ubiquitous in Africa, but the smart phone industry is still
lagging behind. This shouldn’t be seen as a disadvantage, but an opportunity to
act as if the future is now. Over a decade ago, not many people would have
anticipated the recent explosion in the mobile phone industry in Africa as seen
today. Although smart phones are currently being used by high earned members of
the society like the healthcare workers, with the continued growth of the
mobile phone industry in Africa, smart phones would soon be a part of our daily
lives, even infiltrating the most remote of areas.
Here
are five ways smart phones can help:
Voice/
Video calls: Voice calls between patient and doctors, doctors and other
healthcare givers would improve patient-doctor relationship, reduce the crowds
in rural health centre as most patients can easily get information directly
from their doctors or healthcare givers rather than coming all the way to the
health centre. Video calls would improve patient doctor interaction in-real
time. Imagine seeing your doctor in your living room, kitchen, market place etc.
and showing him that rash or swelling that has being bothering you.
Doctor-healthcare provider information sharing. Also, simple procedures can be
thought in real-time by more qualified healthcare providers.
SMS
: As in the case of Dr Peter, patients can be alerted and reminded of clinic
days, vaccination days, antenatal days, given health tips, etc. The SMS is
currently being used in a lot of mHealth in Africa. Examples include;
cellphones4HIV in South Africa, Project done to improve early infant diagnosis
of HIV in Mozambique, free AIDS test by text in Ethiopia, Mobile midwife
project in Ghana, Learning by living project in Nigeria.
Social
media: The rise of social media especially among the young is almost
coincidental with the rise in smart phone use not only in Africa but globally.
Facebook in particular is very big in Africa, and Dr Peter summed up how it can
be used in healthcare delivery in rural areas. Other social media sites like
Twitter, Google hangout, YouTube are also experiencing increased use in Africa.
Applications:
Mobile apps on smart phones vary from simple medical books and drugs to the
sophisticated yet easy to use ECG application. Imagine an app that can take
ultrasound scan pictures of a pregnant mother and send it to the doctors phones
as an investigation tool while lying in bed in the comfort of her home. Doctors
can use these apps in remote areas where access to basic healthcare diagnostics
tools are absent in making lifesaving and early diagnosis of diseases.
Internet:
The internet has made the world a global village, and Africa is hugely
benefiting from it. The internet provides medical information, data research on
improving healthcare delivery in rural communities in Africa. In fact, the
internet brings to life the experience of Dr Peters in the rural community,
from his bulk sms, to facebook with members of the community, to personal
research and discussion with younger members of the community on recent health
issues.
The
potential of smartphones to improve healthcare delivery in Africa is enormous.
It is time for Africa to fully tap into the opportunity provided by the rapidly
growing mobile phone industry to improve the health of its citizens.
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