MIT Next Billion Network
Within the next three years, another billion people, mostly in the developing world, will have access to cell phones, unleashing a revolution in communications and information access. Recognizing the potential of this transformation, the Next Billion Network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is creating innovative mobile technologies to meet the needs of low-income people in developing countries, expanding opportunities for self-reliance in health, personal finance, education, and citizenship. It promotes bottom-up, sustainable, and scalable business models that enable new forms of peer-to-peer collaborations. Sponsored by the Carlos Slim Foundation, the Next Billion Network partners with local non-governmental organizations with which they provoke students to design and deploy mobile technologies to meet real-world needs.
Mobile Care (Moca), an open-source, customizable telehealth platform, is one example of a project generated from the Next Billion Network. Moca enables cell phones to become medical diagnostic devices for health workers in remote areas of the world, connecting them to medical professionals in urban areas. Using Moca, a worker collects data about a patient by following a series of questions or prompts; takes pictures and records voice or video tags if needed; and uploads the information to OpenMRS, a free medical-record system, where a doctor grabs a case from the queue and reviews it. The doctor then replies via Moca with a diagnosis, allowing for same-day treatment or referral—important in areas where patients often travel great distances for health care.
Interactive Alerts, a system using mobile phones to track childhood pneumonia in Pakistan, is yet another project. Sixweek-old infants are given an RFID (radio frequency ID) tag in the form of a traditional bracelet. When a child becomes ill, the RFIDtagged bracelet is scanned by a participating health practitioner using a mobile phone to retrieve pertinent immunization, clinical, and health information. Health workers are then able to effectively track and treat pneumonia, the leading cause of childhood death in a country with high mortality rates of children under the age of five.
Location: mexico, pakistan, philippines, united states