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Orange this week has announced a new alliance with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop innovations in mobile health (mHealth) with the aim to help treat and care for individuals in developing countries across Africa. The first phase, with an initial plan to cover Niger, will leverage the expertise, technology and local resources of both organizations to improve quality of care and ensure that health services are readily accessible to all. Both organisations intend to use integrated mHealth platforms and Orange mobile networks to communicate alerts and share resources around family planning and maternal health in future. Orange said that its global footprint, with mobile and fixed networks in 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East, will provide seamless and reliable access to these services.
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The goal of the USAID/Orange alliance is to create a framework for easily replicating these important mobile services such as maternal mHealth solution in a number of African countries throughout the region. In West Africa, USAID and Orange are starting to develop a regional platform with a menu of mobile applications that ministries of health, donors and NGOs could use for consumer education, health worker tools, mobile money, and data collection.
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The collaboration follows Orange's continued expansion into e-health services. In another news, Orange recently announced that it is partnering 3M in Europe to tap on its enterprise services arm, Orange Business Services' secure cloud platform - Flexible Computing Healthcare– to host both its medical applications and patient information. Both the companies have launched an innovative oral-care solution.
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Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Global Health
With the increasing use and decreasing cost of mobile phones, leveraging mobile phone technology to accelerate access to health information and services is a game changer. USAID’s partnerships with private companies, such as Orange, enable us to have a larger impact in a cost-effective manner.
Thierry Zylberberg, Director, Orange Healthcare
There is a tremendous amount of good that mobile technology and digital innovations can bring to improve the quality of healthcare to those less fortunate. Together with USAID, we are creating innovative mHealth platforms that open up the opportunities for remote patient monitoring or healthcare workers to make better-informed decisions and facilitate quality care for all citizens.
