Medicine:Medic Mobile

Medic Mobile is a nonprofit technology company specializing in mHealth. Health workers use Medic Mobile to register every pregnancy, track disease outbreaks faster, keep stock of essential medicines and communicate about emergencies. Medic Mobile is used in over 20 countries with 39 partners. Over 9,000 health workers currently use Medic Mobile.

Main uses

Antenatal care Improve maternal and newborn health Improving access to basic healthcare services can have significant effects on maternal and infant mortality rates. Health workers use Medic Mobile to register every pregnancy in their communities, automatically schedule reminders about care visits, report danger signs to clinical teams, and coordinate with clinics to ensure delivery in facilities with skilled birth attendants.

Childhood immunizations Increase vaccination coverage A simple and effective way of preventing life-threatening diseases is to immunize infants against illnesses like measles, polio, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Health workers use Medic Mobile to increase coverage for childhood immunization by registering every infant and supporting on-time appointments with automated messaging.

Disease surveillance Help more people receive treatment In Namitete, Malawi, 250,000 people are served by a single hospital. For some people it's a 100-mile journey to get there. There are high rates of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria, and it can be challenging to detect, report, and treat illnesses. In Namitete and around the world, health workers use Medic Mobile to report symptoms to the nearest clinic, receive advice about treatment and emergency referrals, and provide information about the disease burden in their community.

Stock monitoring Stop stockouts and improve access to medicines Stockouts for essential medicines can have life-threatening consequences. A study by Oxfam found that in Malawi, only nine percent of local health facilities had a full complement of essential drugs, including antibiotics and vaccines. Health workers and patients are now using Medic Mobile to report stock levels every week, manage stockout events, monitor dashboards, and guide distribution to ensure access.

Product

Simple SMS Text messages enable real-time communication between CHWs and their supervisors, strengthening the connection between last-mile communities and health facilities. As an example, when health workers text P 3 Jane ("P" for pregnancy, "3" for number of weeks pregnant, name), Medic Mobile registers the pregnancy, creates a patient ID, calculates the expected delivery date, and schedules automated reminder messages.

SIM applications For users with more complex reporting needs, SIM apps can load a menu with custom forms onto any phone with a normal SIM card. Using a paper-thin wafer that sits underneath any ordinary SIM, health workers can submit information using a menu with drop-down lists, instant data validation, and skip logic.

Awards

Skoll Award Winner for Social Entrepreneurship

Partners in Africa

African Palliative Care Association, Kenya. Amref Health Africa, Malawi and Ethiopia. Bushenyi Medical Center, Uganda. ChildFund, Liberia. Children of Blessing Trust, Malawi. Christian Aid, Kenya. HealthRight International, Kenya. IntraHealth, Senegal. Ipas, Nigeria. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, Malawi. Lighthouse (Kamuzu Central Hospital), Kenya. KEMRI-Wellcome, Kenya. Kabwohe Clinical Research Center, Uganda. Kilifi Kids, Kenya. Knowledge for Health (K4Health), Malawi. Last Mile Health, Liberia. Living Goods, Uganda. Makueni District Ministry of Health, Kenya. Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP), Mali. Management Sciences for Health, Malawi and Nigeria. Marie Stopes International, Kenya. MUSO, Mali. PeaceTXT, Kenya. Plan International, Kenya. Population Services International, Cameroon and Mali. Resolve Network, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Saving Mothers Project (Amref, Shirati Hospital, Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief, University of Bruyere), Tanzania. St. Gabriel’s Hospital, Malawi. United Methodist Communications, Democratic Republic of Congo. United Nations Population Fund, Mali. Nexleaf Analytics, Kenya.

Partners in Asia

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO, Nepal. DMF (Developmental Medical Foundation), India. Hope Foundation, Bangladesh. Ipas, Nepal and India. MINDS, India. miraclefeet, India. One Heart World-Wide, Nepal. Possible, Nepal. Rockefeller Foundation, India.

Partners in the Americas

Becton, Dickinson and Company, Panama. Carlos Slim Health Institute, Mexico. Children in Crisis (Stanford), Guatemala. Cure Violence, USA. Global Healing, Honduras. MASS Design, Haiti. Mission 4636, Haiti. San Mateo Medical Center, USA. Stanford Hospital, USA.