At long last, I have arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I am here on behalf of FrontlineSMS:Medic and will be working with a great organization called the Smiling Sunshine Franchise Program (SSFP). The plan, loosely, is to pilot FrontlineSMS at five clinics under the SSFP umbrella. In addition to empirical applications for FrontlineSMS networks at clinics (acute care response, drug requests, appointment organization, treatment adherence, etc), for the first time we will be attempting to use FrontlineSMS Forms in order to transfer standardized bits of records between community health workers and clinicians.
The agenda is quite filled: after getting brought up to speed on SSFP’s current operations in the country, we will be working to customize forms for the respective clinics and hash out some of the applications for the communication network (who knows what will develop organically once the pilots begin, however). We have a meeting with Nokia to try and get a bulk rate/charitable organization discount on java phones. We need to procure netbooks and GSM modems from a separate provide. We have training sessions and site visits to conduct with the staff and CHWs throughout the peri-Dhaka region. And the timeline? Two weeks!
Also, for the sake of completeness, I’ve been in Mexico for the past six weeks working on a project unrelated to FrontlineSMS:Medic (but equally relevant to my career interests). That’s my excuse for the lack of updates.
Stay tuned 
Nadim \+/
