[UgaBYTES] Better health at the click of a button

[Mwathi Francis]

Information technology helps Rwandan clinics reach out

 The small, dusty village of Mayange lies 20 kilometres from Rwanda's
capital, Kigali. Its health centre has fewer than 40 beds but serves
an estimated 35,000 people. In most ways, the Mayange centre is like
thousands of other health facilities across the continent which
struggle to meet patients' needs with very few resources and staff.


But, thanks to an innovative partnership involving the government,
non-governmental organizations and private companies, the Mayange
centre now uses mobile telephones to provide better treatment. With
software developed by Ericsson and phones donated by the Rwandan
subsidiary of Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), a South African firm,
health workers can call up the medical records of pregnant women from
an online database and then, by cell phone, tell care-givers what to
do during an emergency. Each phone now has in its memory a maternal
and child-care training manual, with images and audio directions that
can be sent to mothers and families.

Read the whole story on;
http://www.ugabytes.org/nod/?q=node/434