Medic Mobile: Better Health Care With Mobile Technology

Medic Mobile is a San Francisco-based non-profit using mobile technology to improve health in underserved communities around the world. It all started when a group of students at Stanford and Lewis & Clark began using FrontlineSMS, a free software application, to coordinate community health workers at St. Gabriel's Hospital in Namitete, Malawi. They realized that health care in remote and disconnected communities can be improved with existing communication technologies. Since then, Medic Mobile has helped over 50 organizations in more than 20 countries.

Medic Mobile uses both its own tools and open source software created by other organizations to carry out its mission. Medic Mobile believes utilizing tools that are already available generates the greatest health impact per dollar invested. If no sufficient solution exists, the non-profit builds new tools to serve its partners' needs.

One of these tools is Muvuku, an award-winning platform for SIM card applications that enables community health workers to collect data using GSM mobile phones. Data collection forms are loaded directly onto the SIM card, making Muvuku compatible with any standard GSM device including simple $15 handsets that are already in health workers' hands.

Medic Mobile has also developed Kujua Lite, a web app for clinic staff and managers that sends and receives regular forms and messages and schedules time-targeted confirmation messages. By providing real-time access to community data, the app enables faster communication and more targeted support to patients. Working seamlessly with Kujua Lite is Kujua Analytics, a data analysis and visualization platform designed to help Medic Mobile's partners measure the impact of their work, track operational progress, and make decisions. The cloud-hosted, customizable tool is currently being used to monitor drug stocks in Mexico, and to keep track of patient referrals and provide feedback to health workers in Nepal.

Medic Mobile is headed by CEO Josh Nesbit, a Stanford grad and Ashoka Fellow.