Social networking?

Unfortunately, unlike with the mobile technology blog, I was unable to find much or any information at all about social networking being used in developing countries to assist in medicine and health care. The only correlation that I was able to recognize was the use of social networking sites in the United States to help efforts in other countries regarding health care. For example, the Red Cross utilizes facebook to raise awareness about various health disparities and issues around the world. Other organization also have facebook pages and groups that can be accessed by anyone and can help raise awareness about health care issues in other countries.

Since this was the only information that I could really find regarding health care and social networking, I decided to blog about a few things that I found interesting. I will continue the theme from last week and discuss more about mobile technology and health care in other nations.

First, I wanted to discuss some of the other aspects of mobile technology use in relation to health care and medicine in other countries around the world. There is a program currently in place in Malawi and Uganda that works to provide cheap mobile phones to people and uses text messages to deliver valuable health information to patients. The organization is called FrontlineSMS-Medic and they provided open-source software in order to use cell phones and text messaging technology to deliver information to various patients throughout the rural areas of the two nations. The program allows for people to remain connected to their health care providers in areas where they can't be physically connected. Unlike the aspects of mobile technology being used to assist in improving health care that were discussed last week, this plan gives mobile phones and text messaging abilities to patients themselves rather then just to health care professionals. While it's important for health care professionals to have access to resources and information, patients in rural areas need to have access to the health professionals for it to mean anything and for it to make a difference in their treatments at all.

A completely different aspect of health care and mobile technology that I haven't talked about involves delivering aid, specifically food aid, to Iraqi refugees living in Syria. Instead of being directly involved with health care and medicine, it is involved with allowing people in this area to purchase food. While this isn't medicine persay, it is food that keeps people healthy and able to survive without needing medical care, so I think it is an important part of health care and helping improve the health of people in developing countries. The concept is that text message food vouchers are sent to individuals with the phones. The UN started this program in order to easily and quickly deliver food vouchers to people in developing and war-torn areas so that they are able to exchange the virtual vouchers for food like cheese, eggs, rice, and flour. The information about this particular initiative can be found on this website highlighting Global Health, although there is unfortunately not a wealth of information about it at this point in time.

To conclude the section about mobile technology use and medicine and health care in developing countries, I think that is important to realize that just because countries are developing and are miles behind the United States, it is possible for many people in these areas to have cell phone service and to own a cell phone. Mobile technology use has spread to parts of the world that people would never imagine, and it's crucial to utilize such technologies in this day and age. It's so important to reach the people and health care professionals in these communities, and cell phones provide an instant way to communicate and spread awareness and information regarding health care and personal welfare to people in areas like Africa, India, and Syria.