The mHealth Alliance has announced the winners of the 'Top 11 in 2011' Innovators Challenge, which recognises forward-thinking mobile health (m-health) professionals who have created ways to improve health systems in remote areas of the world.
With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alliance crowned the winners at a reception held in advance of the mHealth Summit, taking place in Washington this week.
Nominations were submitted from more than 30 countries, and the Top 11 in 2011 innovators were selected through a process that included public nominations and voting on the mHealth Alliance's Health Unbound network, as well as through juried selection committee voting.
“The growing field of m-health is driven by innovation,” said mHealth Alliance executive director Patty Mechael. “From fighting counterfeit medications, to enabling doctors to communicate for free, the contributions of these top innovators are advancing the field, expanding delivery of important health services, and saving lives.”
Karl Brown, associate director of applied technology at the Rockefeller Foundation, added: “As the m-health community gathers for the annual mHealth Summit, we are excited to recognise these innovators, many of whom are working in low-resource environments on behalf of poor and vulnerable populations.”
The winners of the Top 11 in 2011 Innovators Challenge are:
Alain Labrique for mCare - an integrated mobile system that facilitates pregnancy surveillance and registration to optimise the delivery of care to pregnant women and newborns. It also assists in emergency response.
Ann Roos-Weil for Pesinet - a system combining local resources and mobile technology to increase care and reduce child mortality in Mali.
Ashok Jhunjhunwala for Voice Net - a personalised, voice-based information retrieval and transaction system with local language voice recognition to effectively aid healthcare delivery in India.
Aydogan Ozcan for cost-effective and field-portable microscope and diagnostics tools for telemedicine application in resource-poor areas and developing countries in Africa, South America and South Asia.
Bright Simmons for mPedigree - a platform that combines mobile technology and cloud computing to fight counterfeit medicines by providing free access to an instant drug quality verification system via text messaging in Africa and South Asia.
Derek Treatman for CommCare-Sense - a localised multimedia system to improve the quality of care in four districts in India.
Eric Woods for MDNet - a networking programme for physicians in Ghana and Liberia, allowing them to call and text each other at no cost, MDNet is the first-ever doctor directory and bulk SMS system through which government administrators can send alerts and collect data.
Isaac Holeman for an application that enables menu-driven applications to run directly from a SIM card on even the least expensive phones in Malawi and Cameroon.
Joaquin Blaya for MiDoctor - a system to address problems associated with non-communicable diseases in low-resource settings by connecting patients and their providers via automated phone calls and SMSes.
KS Shankar for a mother and child tracking system, based on SMS technology, that provides updates from auxiliary nurse midwives in India.
Martin Were for AMPATH - a clinical decision-support system that incorporates patient data within electronic health records to provide patient-specific and timely reminders about deficiencies in care to clinicians in Kenya.
Share