Posted on February 18, 2009

UN, Rockefeller, Vodafone Foundations Launch Mobile Health Alliance

The United Nations, Rockefeller and Vodafone foundations have announced the launch of a new partnership that will work to maximize the impact of mobile health, especially in the developing world.

The Mobile Health (mHealth) Alliance will encourage the development of scalable, sustainable, and open-standard health solutions that can be made widely available while supporting projects and research focused on increasing opportunities for mobile health. The alliance was formed as a result of a conference hosted by Rockefeller in July 2008 in which participants identified a need to increase collaborations across sectors and regions to improve healthcare delivery in the developing world.

The UN and Vodafone foundations' Technology Partnership has also released a new report, mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World (70 pages, PDF), that includes a survey of the current mobile health landscape and highlights more than fifty examples of mobile health projects in developing countries.

"Mobile technology can enable significant progress toward reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals relating to health," said UN Foundation vice president for global health Daniel Carucci. "This mHealth Alliance will provide a platform to bring the technology and health sectors together to maximize the impact mobile technology can have in improving health across the developing world."