The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, are two of the entities that are supporting mHealthEd, a global mobile-health education conference that will kick off in Dublin tomorrow. Julie Sinnamon, Enterprise Ireland’s newly appointed CEO, will open the event.
Running from 12 to 13 September at the Mansion House in Dublin City, the conference will aim to provide a platform for up to 30 experts in the digital, health and education space to thrash out ideas on how to elevate health education levels in developing countries through the use of mobile technologies.
Science Foundation Ireland is also lending its support to the mHealthEd event.
Developing health-related content for mobile
Other delegates expected to attend the conference and share their insights are academics, animation artists, authorities in medicine and mobile technology, and government healthcare officials from across the globe.
According to the organisers of the event, while health services are lagging behind in developing countries, these countries are experiencing a communications revolution. This digital disruption appears to be largely driven by up to 80pc mobile phone penetration, the expansion of network coverage, and the cost of calls decreasing.
Disrupting the health space digitally
In terms of m-health, experts in the medical and digital-health space are starting to recognise how health education content developed for mobile phones can be of benefit, such as potentially life-saving health education in developing countries, as well as advice and training to patients, volunteers, community health workers and medical staff.
In the past, for instance, mobile-health education has been used to give people advice on how to avoid malaria or how to get tested for HIV/AIDS.
Amongst the speakers at mHealthEd will be Firdaus Kharas, a social entrepreneur and media producer who has been bestowed with 70 international awards, including accolades for his use of video and animation.
Nand Wadhwani, the founding trustee of The Mother and Child Health & Education Trust, will also be in Dublin to share insights on how communications technologies can transfer health and nutrition knowledge from and into a community.
Mobile technology and health image via Shutterstock
