Ghana’s Bright Simons among Rockefeller-funded leading Mobile Health Innovators of the Year

Ghanaian Bright Simons is among winners of the Top 11 in 2011 Innovators Challenge organised by the mHealth Alliance with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Challenge, first-of-its-kind recognizes pioneering mobile health (mHealth) professionals who have used mobile technology in innovative ways to improve health systems and outcomes in even the most remote areas of the world.

In a statement December 4, 2011 on its website, mHealth said the winners were announced at a reception held in advance of the mHealth Summit, the world’s largest mobile health event, taking place from December 5-7, 2011 in Washington DC.

According to the Alliance, Bright Simons was among the top winners for developing mPedigree – a platform to combine 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.

The statement said the Top 11 in 2011 Innovators were selected through a process that included public nominations and voting on the mHealth Alliance’s HealthUnbound.org, as well as juried selection committee voting.

Nominations came from more than 30 countries around the world, highlighting mobile technology’s ability to deliver health information and services on a global scale, it said.

“The growing field of mHealth is driven by innovation. 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,” said Patty Mechael, Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance.

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 optimize care delivery to pregnant women and newborns, and facilitates 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 personalized 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 Simons for mPedigree – a platform to combine 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 localized multimedia system to improve quality of care in four districts in India, including Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan.

Eric Woods for MDNet – a networking program for physicians in Ghana and Liberia, allowing physicians to call and text each other at no cost, leading to the first-ever doctor directories and a 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 SIM messages, alerting clinical staff of high-risk situations for patients, and contributing to electronic medical records.

K.S. 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.

By Ekow Quandzie