Explosion of mobile use in developing countries is helping transform health care

BBC Digital Planet article describes the use of mobiles to collect and share vital data on health and disease. Datadyne's EpiSurveyor software is used by health workers to gather information about vaccination rates and instances of HIV.

"We're using just standard cell phones - not smart phones necessarily, although we're working on an iPhone application," said Joel Selanikio, co-founder of DataDyne.

Joel Selanikio, co-founder of Datadyne says that while internet access via desktop or laptop computers is not readily available to all, many people, even in the developing world, have a mobile phone.

EpiSurveyor was built with a focus on international development, but Mr Selanikio says others are finding uses for the system - a trend which could make the project completely self-supporting. For example, he said, the Ministry of Agriculture in Canada use the tool to collect data on veterinary disease in rural farms.

Read the full article.