EXCLUSIVE: Video Footage of FrontlineSMS:Medic in Action

by Andre Blackman on July 27, 2009

Many of you know how much I support the forward movement of mobile technology in the public health world – especially the efforts of the FrontlineSMS:Medic team being led by Josh Nesbit.

I’m pretty excited to announce that Josh has given Pulse + Signal an exclusive look at how things happen over in the southeastern African country of Malawi where he is currently working to implement the mobile health initiative.

See here for the video of how a group of community health workers are being instructed on using the technology. The video is all in chichewa, which is the native local language – but you can get an idea on what is going on with Josh’s subtitles.

How cool is this? I really have the utmost respect and admiration for the team and what they are doing in these developing countries.

Stay tuned for possibly more video footage from the SMS:Medic team on Pulse + Signal!

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Andre July 31, 2009 at 3:14 pm

@Isaac – thanks for checking it out Isaac! Thanks so much for providing another level of understanding of what is going on in the video. Capacity building…sort of like the old saying of teaching people how to fish. Kudos

@Menekse – I appreciate you stopping by -there are a ton of resources out there on mHealth initiatives. Shoot me an email and I can get you some.

Menekse July 28, 2009 at 7:25 pm

Very cool! Can someone explain how they’re using the mobile phone for the mHealth initiatives? Specifically, what types of information are they sending/using and for what purpose? I’m very interested in this space, but know very little about it (my area is mobile financial services). Thanks!

Isaac Holeman July 27, 2009 at 11:36 pm

Nice post Andre,
Just wanted to say how cool I think it is that the training is happening in Chichewa. This training wasn’t and couldn’t have been led by Josh or just any other tech savvy north american. Josh started by teaching the (bi-lingual) local teacher, and now this local teacher can continue to train new community health workers (in Chichewa) long after Josh leaves the clinic. The FrontlineSMS:Medic technology is neat, but the key to what we’re doing is building the capacity of local health workers on multiple levels.
cheers
Isaac
(full disclosure: I’m on the sms:medic team :-)

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