Samsung Partners With GSMA Bringing mHealth To Africa

At a recent forum held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Samsung announced that it has joined the GSMA initiative Mobile for Development mHealth in bringing mobile technology to 15.5 million pregnant women and mothers of young infant children.  

The new cross-ecosystem partnership is designed to pay particular attention to nutrition across Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the improvement of livelihoods. An integral part of the United Nations “Every Woman Every Child Strategy,” the program will reach those who require access to healthcare services the most.

The Mobile for Development mHealth program has also attracted partners such as Gemalto, Hello Doctor, Lifesaver, Mobenzi, Mobilium, MTN, and Omega Diagnostics.

Proud to be one of the founding partners in the initiative, Thabiet Allie, head of content and services at Samsung Electronics Africa, stated during the forum, “It is a vital initiative that fits perfectly with our approach to forming strategic relationships that provide socially relevant solutions to the needs of our customers.”

“As the leading mobile device brand on the continent, Samsung is able to leverage the affinity which consumers already have for our brand and use it to add impetus to the goal of providing much needed access to healthcare information to people who need it most”, added Allie.

“The companies in this partnership are working to deliver the objectives of the United Nations Every Women Every Child Global Strategy, as well as the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, in the areas of nutrition and maternal and child health. We call on mobile ecosystem players, health providers, governments, NGOs, civil society and others to work with us to launch life-saving mobile health services,” said Tom Phillips, chief regulatory officer, GSMA.

The program will be introduced in two phases, with the first being launched in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia from September 2014. The second phase will commence in 2015 and will incorporate additional partners and services while addressing Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Samsung’s partnership will reduce barriers to handset ownership and connectivity for consumers and health workers by offering discounted Samsung handsets and tablets; provide access to the Samsung ecosystem; and pre-embed a Smart Health application that provides a range of professional applications, information and services on 80 million Samsung handsets.  

Africa has long been affected by the information gap caused by geographical distances, leaving millions of African women and children at a loss when it comes to medical advice and care, but with mobile bridges, that can soon come to change.