Google.Org joins us in the global health blog space

Official google.org Blog: Two introductions

Google.Org has officially launched their blog. Besides our site, there are very few sites dedicated to technology, health and development issues or to discussing global health solutions. So it's great to see their official launch.

Come check us out at our new site: http://thdblog.wordpress.com

Where are the games (to educate on HIV/AIDS risks)?

In the same vein as tele-novelas scripted with socially responsible messages, several years ago Reliance Infocomm - a New Dehli communications and entertainment company - created four mobile phone-based games that teach HIV-prevention strategies as players navigate the various gaming worlds. The buzz on the net has been tremendous since the 2003 announcement of the Freedom HIV initiative. Yet this blogger has found that it's much easier to locate the praises of the concept than to find the games. A search for Reliance Infocomm eventually deadended at Reliance Mobile World's game station page without any links to the Freedom HIV gaming package. ZMQ software hosts the Freedom HIV link but the games themselves are only viewable as screenshots here. One would think such a noteworthy and socially responsible for-profit concept, with undisclosed amounts of the proceeds to benefit HIV/AIDS efforts, would be better marketed and readily available for download not only to mobile phones but interested gamers on PC platforms as well.

USAID, "Last Mile" ICT Initiative

Global health tasks can be conceptually divided into research, disease surveillance, health education, and health programs. In much of the developing world populations are quickly connecting to telecommunication networks via mobile phone systems. As new wireless systems come online, there is great potential to expand current global health activities. There are difficulties, however, in building the "last mile" of communications systems. To help bridge that information and communication technology (ICT) divide, USAID has funded engineering research through the Last Mile Initiative. The effort was recently profiled on the Development Gateway.

In the fall of 2005, under the supervision of Principal Investigator, Dr. Michael Best, thirteen students from the Georgia Institute of Technology came together as USAID Last Mile ICT Initiative (LMI) Innovation Fellows. This activity took place within the framework of USAID's Last Mile Innovation Committee managed by dot-ORG. The students' job was to provide fresh and dynamic new perspectives into LMI programs in Africa, S.E. Europe, and Latin America. These student research fellows came from every major discipline represented at Georgia Tech, including International Affairs, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Engineering Psychology, Mechanical Engineering, and Industrial Design. The results of these activities are contained in a volume titled "Last Mile Initiative Innovations: Research Findings from the Georgia Institute of Technology"

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Cheap drug to make childbirth safer in poor countries - India randomized trial

A Berkeley-based NGO, Venture Strategies for Health and Development, is working to win developing countries' regulatory approval for use of misoprostol in treatment of postpartum hemorrhage. Nigeria and Ethiopia are two early adopters of the technology. The report below underscores the drug's efficacy in settings where other drugs simply cannot reach. Misoprostol is heat stable, easy to administer, and safe at a wide range of doses.

Ben

Cheap drug to make childbirth safer in poor countries

October 2006, ScidevNet
The abortion drug misoprostol can be used to help save the lives of women who bleed heavily after giving birth, say researchers. The condition is a major killer of women in developing countries.

The results of a clinical trial in rural India published today (6 October) in The Lancet indicate that misoprostol reduced the incidence of postpartum haemorrhage by almost half. Death due to postpartum haemorrhage accounts for almost 30 per cent of maternal deaths in India, where nearly half of all births take place in the home or in facilities without a trained gynaecologist or obstetrician in attendance.

"The researchers showed that giving women misoprostol after birth is a safe, inexpensive means of preventing postpartum haemorrhage from occurring". "This advance has the potential to save thousands of lives each year." The researchers say it is "currently the only available pharmacological option for preventing postpartum haemorrhage and reducing postpartum blood loss in these communities".

A major concern is the potential for the misuse of misoprostol. The drug is available, although illegally, as an over-the-counter pill. Approved for use in India in 2002, it is only supposed to be
taken under medical supervision, yet it is sold in several pharmacies.

Link to full paper in The Lancet
Reference: The Lancet 368, 9543 (2006)

In India: Power of Mobile Phones

This recent Wharton newsletter reinforces the power of mobile phones. We can see why mobile phones have had such a large impact on developing countries. Also the application to healthcare/global health has potential:

A good interview with NetCore CEO Rajesh Jain in the "Knowledge @ Wharton" e-newsletter reinforces the relative size of the mobile internet market relative to the PC users.

In India some 10 million people have access to a PC either at home, or at work, or both...That's only for 10 million people at the top of the digital pyramid. This is the "PC first" segment.

In the middle of the pyramid are 30 million people who access the Internet through cybercafés. The price point today hovers around 15-20 rupees [35-45 U.S. cents] an hour. But you cannot build your digital life around cybercafés... That is where the mobile phone comes in. It is a device that these people have with them all the time -- This is the "mobiles first" segment.

At the bottom of the pyramid are about 70 million people who have mobile phones but who have no access to computers, mostly for economic reasons. For them, the mobile phone is their primary device to connect to the world. This segment uses pre-paid mobile services; this is the "mobiles only" segment, and it is growing rapidly.

Healthcare Information For All by 2015

Healthcare Information For All by 2015: HIFA2015 email forum launches today. HIFA2015 is a new global email discussion group with an ambitious but achievable goal: 'By 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed healthcare provider.

The group will provide a neutral discussion space for all those with an interest in the creation, exchange and use of relevant, practical healthcare information for family carers, primary health workers, and district-level healthcare providers in developing and transitional countries.

This will launch formally in Mombasa, Kenya, on 26th October 2006, at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. For further details, see this.

Microsoft develops application to elicit end-user empathy from programmers

This video is worth a few minutes on a work break:

http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=7684&where=index

Or Ricky Gervais's interview with Microsoft management:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9076288729387457440