Mobile phones and the future of medicine

Samsung Galaxy Note (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

When I attended the first UCT Faculty of Health Sciences Postgraduate Research Day, last year, one of the talks concerned using cell phones to empower community healthcare workers. As I recall, this was primarily focussed on rural health-care, where funds and equipment are especially tight. Cellphones, however, are quite common. More than 75% of South Africans use cellphones, making them more popular than radio, television or computers. Some side-effects of this have been a photo series of disguised towers and Mxit, a local chat application, going international. All these phones also have the potential to help improve medical care.