Pharmaceutical Companies as the Good Guys

Jody Ranck, Director of Thought Leadership, Policy and Advocacy at MHealthAlliance brought up an interesting point about private sector involvement and interest in the mobile health (mhealth) ecosystem being limited to the mobile operator. He stated that companies selling mobile telephones and charging for phone service are the only ones with private stake in the mobile health technologies industry.

I found the sole involvement of mobile companies interesting because I see mhealth technology as an interesting market for other private actors, such as individual medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies to tap into, especially in the developing world.

Public/Private collaboration is necessary, especially when lack of effective financial resources at the public level is often the major cause of poverty and health issues. With this in mind, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health in collaboration with Novartis, a pharmaceutical company and Vodafone, a mobile service provider, have developed “SMS for Life,” a program that ensures patients have access to malaria medicine by using mobile phones to track antimalarial drug supplies. 

Here is a video by Vodafone about the pilot program in Tanzania: 

Another great program “Text4Baby, developed by Johnson and Johnson, for mothers in the United States, has the opportunity to make a great impact on natal health in the developing world. The program is “the first ever free mobile health service in the United States that provides timely and expert health information via SMS text messages to pregnant women and new moms through their baby’s first year” (http://www.jnj.com/connect/caring/patient-stories/reaching-moms-one-text-at-a-time).

Here is the promotional video for Text4Baby: 

Text4Baby focuses on women in underserved communities, sending them direct text messages that provide critical health information to expecting and new mothers. By Texting “BABY” or “BEBE” (for Spanish speakers) to 511411, women sign themselves up for three free text messages a week, timed to the baby’s due date or date of birth. The program sends messages pertaining to birth defects prevention, immunization, nutrition, disease, and mental and physical health.

The program is a great concept, but there are still many issues in terms of communicating the benefits of the service and actually registering women for the program. My mom works for Johnson and Johnson, and she wasn’t aware of the program. Therefore, I think Johnson and Johnson should introduce a wider, large-scale marketing program to spread the word to women in underprivileged areas of the United States. They should invest more financial resources for public service announcements and advertisements that promote Text4Baby. Women may not necessarily follow all the advice provided, but at least something will be done to close the information gap. This has the opportunity to help women in one of the most critical times of their lives—they just need to be made aware of it!

A program like this, if marketed effectively, could make a great impact in the developing world, where infant mortality rates remain extremely high. When I was in Kenya, talking to rural village communities about nutrition and general health education, I noticed a great deal of misinformation amongst the women (and men) in regards to pregnancy and birth. The community members were not aware that rest, proper nutrition, and care were just as important for the woman prenatally as it was after birth. For example, many of the women said they often worked in the fields until quite late into their pregnancies because their husbands didn’t understand the effect of childbearing on their bodies.

All of these women had access to a mobile telephone in some way (usually through their husbands), so if a program like Text4Baby was expanded to rural regions of Kenya, BOTH men and women would be informed about the appropriate care required for women pre and post pregnancy. The problems of misinformation, and even gender inequality that perpetuate poverty and health diseases could be solved!

I honestly believe more programs like this should be implemented in locations where medical attention and resources are often hard to reach. What we need is more action from the drug companies themselves; they should work to be socially responsible as they are the ones with the medical resources and financial weight to develop innovative ideas for healthcare through technology.