FrontlineSMS:Medic, perhaps the most exciting thing I’m doing right now in my life, launched this morning. What is it? A response to a void in healthcare and an answer to those who have called yet heard nothing- it is a team committed to a change that is long-lasting, sustainable, effective, and affordable. And it all hinges on that device in your pocket, your connection to the ones you love, the easiest distraction in a time of boredom, and your most reliable friend in a serious crisis. The linchpin of the whole organization is your mobile phone.
As I remember, it was only three weeks ago when Lucky and I started talking- cell phones for healthcare. Simple enough, right? Rural areas in the developing world lack access to quality healthcare, we give community healthcare workers cellphones, they text the hospital regarding sick patients, etc.- problem solved. As it turns out, there’s a lot more to it, and it’s even more compelling.
Lucky, a fellow first-year at Stanford med and a one-year headhunter back from Japan, was making the right connections. He’s a business man at heart, a sponge for contacts, and his choice to be in med school screams “in denial” to me.” Regardless, he linked us up with an accomplished Stanford undergrad, Josh Nesbit. Josh is the founder of the Mobiles in Malawi program and is well-known in the mobile activist community. By giving community health workers cell phones and an interface to interact with the central hospital, the entire model of healthcare was transformed. The outcomes were phenomenal- doubled capacity of the TB treatment program, thousands of dollars saved on fuel, etc- and as a result sites from all over the world have been asking for implementation of mobile networks of care. Our team is committed to rolling these sites out in a way that is appropriate and sensitive to local communities. But to push the envelope, we’re going to keep improving the system. The specifics are on the team site, but for the sake of completeness, here are some proposed ideas:
- Utilize a forms clients to organize incoming data from CHWs in whatever way is most useful for clinicians and staff
- Add support for open medical records systems- CHWs can be update and access unique patient medical records via SMS
- Integrate point-of-care diagnostic technologies such as CD4 cell counts, viral load, etc. to rapidly speed up the time to diagnoses (to be seen)
That last bullet point excited us all quite a bit, and we’re working on moving that forward. Prof. Aydogan Ozcan at UCLA is pioneering this work, and Lucky and I are flying down tomorrow to give a pitch and see about an arrangement 
For the relevant background, Lucky’s blog is a good read.
The general plan sounds good to us, but it’s not all straightforward. How does one implement? How do we scale? How can we compel companies and organizations to donate and fund our efforts? Well, we have a gracious head start from Josh with the Malawi pilot, and his connections with Ken Banks (founder of FrontlineSMS) have gotten the ball rolling at a somewhat blinding pace. As for me, I’ll be helping out with the day-to-day logistics and then focusing on the development of a randomized clinical trial in Bangladesh. We’ll be testing some of our ideas out in the peri-urban localities surrounding Dhaka, because in order to scale our innovations, we need to convince various communities that our plan can achieve compelling, positive outcomes. Future posts (many to come) will flesh out the specifics of this project out over time.
As for now, I should get back to focusing on health policy (currently in class) and start prepping for UCLA tomorrow! Stay tuned for updates 
Nadim \+/
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