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Etisalat, Zantel, Qualcomm and D-Tree International will use mobile
technology to support healthcare providers in offering quality counseling,
preventive care and treatment to women and children in Tanzania.
Essa Al Haddad, Etisalat group chief marketing officer and chairman of
Zantel, announced the joint programme between the four companies to bring
mobile health services to Tanzania. The companies are working closely with
the government of Zanzibar.
Etisalat, Zantel and Qualcomm will provide connectivity, handsets and other
technologies to the program, while D-tree International in conjunction with
the Ministry of Health of Zanzibar alongside several leading international
non-governmental organizations will deploy the service.
Commenting on this initiative, Haddad said: “This partnership is part of a
broader series of agreements that combine a numbers of technologies from
leading companies and experts in mobile healthcare.”
“This includes decision support applications and integrated technological
backbones for scalable mobile solutions. These agreements will help support
the treatment of children, pregnant women and chronic diseases,” he added.
Etisalat’s program, along with its partners, has been initiated in light of
the risk of maternal fatalities which are estimated at 50 times higher in
Sub-Saharan Africa compared to developed countries.
Nearly half a million women on the continent die each year in pregnancy and
four million newborns die during the first 28 days.
Al Haddad continued: “We have been spurred to introduce this program putting
in mind the rapid penetration of mobile phones in the developing countries
and the need to use advanced technology to provide and support healthcare in
these markets.”
“Malnutrition and lack of medical care for pregnant women have cost millions
of lives and are most dangerous in countries across Africa, including
Tanzania”, he said.
Highlighting on the program’s features, Hadad said: “This application will
help to fight malnutrition in children and provide safer pregnancies for
women in Tanzania. The mobile phone will be equipped with special software
to help medical professionals care for children and maintain a patient
record which helps support extended care.”
“The tool also aids midwives which will ensure safer deliveries for pregnant
women. It can help in quickly and accurately identifying obstetric
emergencies, as well as enabling caregivers to arrange transportation during
emergencies to the nearest healthcare facility where patients can receive
the appropriate care.”
Dr Marc Mitchell, president of D-Tree, said “We believe that mHealth has the
potential to revolutionise the way health services are provided in countries
such as Tanzania. By providing decision support tools to frontline health
workers, combined with Etisalat’s extensive telecommunications portfolio, we
can assist governments to extend the reach of the health system into the
communities where people live.” – *TradeArabia News Service*
Africa Matters
