Mobile Health Through Bulk SMS
Bulk SMS has reached new heights in application and is now being applied, not only for business purposes, but in the health arena too. In South Africa, ‘mHealth‘ ensures that health care reaches even the furthest and most remote reaches of the country.
If you haven’t read any of the other posts on this website, then you’ll probably need a quick explanation of bulk SMS: As the name implies, bulk SMS refers to the sending and receiving of a large volume of SMS messages. These messages can either be sent at once, or on an individual or group basis.
Studies suggest that there are approximately 4-billion mobile phones on earth this very minute. This means that, of a global population of roughly 6 billion, potentially two out of every three people have access to a mobile phone. While a lot of the focus has been on the business application of bulk SMS, health care facilities and institutions are now also able to make use of this efficient technology to improve everyday health and increase their reach.
Patient Monitoring through Bulk SMS
One of the more lauded applications of bulk SMS within the health care industry is made evident through the SIMpill technology. This device is fitted with a SIM card and enables health care workers to monitor the time of day when the medication was taken and how much of it was taken. More importantly, this device sends reminders to the patient when medication is past due.
The efficacy of this technology, combined with the prevalence of the mobile phone and the ability of all modern handsets to receive SMS messages, has resulted in a 70% increase in the number of people who now take their tuberculosis medicine.
Patient Education through Bulk SMS
Another great benefit of bulk SMS is that it is a language independent platform. Messages can either be sent using normal Latin-alphabet characters or, when Unicode encoded, in almost any other character including Chinese, Arabic, etc.
This means that bulk SMS messages can be transmitted in a region-specific language, thereby ensuring that all literate recipients are capable of understanding the messages they receive. Especially in Africa, where English is often only a 2nd or 3rd language for many people, this has proven to be a great assistance with regards to education about and prevention of disease.
Can More be Done?
As the use of bulk SMS progresses, it’s only a matter of time before we see the rise of services that will make life both easier and better for healthcare professionals and their patients. This can include the diagnosis and/or treatment of non-critical physical afflictions, as well as a host of other public services that currently suffer under a shortage of manpower.
In short, bulk SMS is proving to be an effective communications solution for the African 21st century.
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Tags: bulk SMS, Bulk SMS Api's, bulk SMS messaging, Bulk SMS Solution, SMS education, SMS health care, SMS rural areas, SMS text messages
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[...] Last week’s post touched on bulk SMS and how it can be used to increase the efficacy of health services throughout South Africa, and, as if in response to this, even more evidence appeared regarding the application of SMS and how it can be used to save lives: [...]