Medic Mobile

Target SDGs

Market Suggested Retail Price

$60,000.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Household, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Public Sector Agencies

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Medic Mobile has worked with 50 partners in 21 countries. Medic Mobile partners with all levels of the health system, including community health workers, NGOs, community clinics and hospitals, ministries of health, and international agencies.

Regions

Africa, Asia, Latin America

Manufacturing/Building Method

N/A

Intellectural Property Type

Open-source

User Provision Model

A do-it-yourself version of the Medic Mobile offline web application for antenatal care can be downloaded directly from the Medic Mobile website. The entire Medic Mobile toolkit, which also includes applications for childhood vaccinations, disease surveillance, and stock monitoring is only available to partner organizations. To become a partner organization, submit a request via the online contact form.

Distributions to Date Status

24,463 health workers in 23 countries are using Medic Mobile.

Design Specifications

Medic Mobile can be used for antenatal care, childhood immunization, disease surveillance, and stock monitoring applications.

The main Medic Mobile toolkit runs on feature phones, smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Patients and community health workers can submit information via SMS messaging which is sent to a computer with the web application. The web application receives and stores data sent from community health workers, manages contacts, sends automated messages to individual or multiple recipients, and automatically schedules appointments. The web app also includes a cloud-hosted analytics feature to visualize data. The web app can be hosted locally (i.e without internet connectivity) or on a cloud server. The cloud based web app runs as a responsive web app on desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. The cloud-based web app runs best on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari on a computer that is connected to the internet.^{Interview with representative}

The Medic Mobile system includes two tools for smart phones. The Medic Mobile App is a full feature Android app that provides an automated task list, contact organization, guidance through clinical actions such as screening for high-risk pregnancies, and target updates. Additionally, Medic Collect is a smart phone tool that is based on ODK Collect. Unlike ODK Collect which requires internet or wifi to send data, Medic Collect allows for data to be sent via SMS.^{Interview with representative}

Users can also install a Medic Mobile SIM app to submit information on feature phones with custom forms. Many partners use Nokia feature phones (within 101-190 model range) although generally any feature phone with SMS capabilities will suffice.^{Interview with representative} The price point for feature phones should be around 25 USD each.^{Interview with representative}

Medic Mobile has also developed do-it-yourself (DIY) toolkits that are separate from the primary toolkit. There is currently only a DIY toolkit for antenatal care. The specifications for the DIY toolkits are as follows:

• Technology/storage required: GSM modem, 2GB RAM (preferably 4GB)
• Languages available: English, Spanish, French, Nepali and Swahili
• Operating system: Windows
• Software version of O/S: Windows XP or newer

Product Schematics

Technical Support

Representatives from Medic Mobile conduct on-site training sessions for organizational or facility level supervisors prior to launch. These secondary users are responsible for training community health workers. Medic Mobile will translate its tools to accommodate local languages.^{Interview with representative}

Replacement Components

N/A

Lifecycle

Feature phones that are used for Medic Mobile should have a long battery life (800 hours on standby and 12+ hours of talk time).^{Interview with representative}

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

Unknown

Vetted Performance Status

Details of numerous pilot studies that have been conducted by Medic Mobile with collaborating partners are available in the 2013 and 2014 annual reports. Experts note that it would be nice to see user feedback in the annual reports.

Safety

-  Medic Mobile

- DMF India

- Kilifi Kids

- Kenya Ministry of Health

Complementary Technical Systems

Unknown

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

Medic Mobile endorses USAID's Principles for Digital Development. Medic Mobile aims to align with national digital health strategy which varies from country to country.^{Interview with representative}

Evaluation methods

Different pilot projects:

St. Grabiel´s Hospital in Malawi: the change in the efficiency of the hospital capacity was measured.

Other Information

Medic Mobile was awarded the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Medic Mobile was also awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation.