So the U.S. Chief Technology Officer today announced a "free mobile health service for pregnant women and new mothers."  The system, text4baby, allows moms to receive text messages about baby health on their phones.

Terrific posting at Mule Design Studios about "the failure of empathy", specifically the empathy of tech people for what real people really want:

Jason Pontin, the editor of MIT's Tech Review magazine was at my panel at Davos today (well, not MY panel: really Eric Schmidt's panel), and we chatted afterwards. Saw him again at an MIT function later on and he pointed me to his blog entry on the panel discussion.

It all began in Washington DC, during the mHealth summit which i attended and gave presentation on "fighting Polio using Cellphone late last year(2009). Dr Milen from Amsterdam, who attended the same mHealth conference requested to send medical correspondent from Helsinki

Six months after being made public, EpiSurveyor's online site (www.episurveyor.org) just picked up its 1007th user. This means that it's now the most popular web application for public health and international development in the world -- but since it's also the only web application for public health and international development in the world I guess that's a given.

To day Geroge and i, went for a DEMO at the the APHIA II offices located at the International House.As part of strenghthening  information system within the province,Pathfinders through the APHIA II project has purchased 8 phones( Nokia 6300 )  to be used by the district  Health Information teams with the aim of improving data, collection,quality ,analysis and enhanced feedback.

IT News Africa reported that Smile Telecom is launching an innovative new business model in Uganda.  It is a subscription service that allows consumers to buy minutes and receive a PIN that they can then use to make calls on a payphone handset. It eliminates the need to purchase a handset, which can be prohibitively expensive for some.

I had the pleasure of being in the audience as Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao spoke at the mHealth Summit in London last week, and was astonished to find him mentioning our very own EpiSurveyor as an example of the power of mobile technology for public health. He noted, correctly, that EpiSurveyor enables workers to make quicker, better and much more informed responses, and leads to much more informed policy making.

I can't remember the last time I thought "genius" but this guy clearly merits the label.

Well, the annual conference for the Global Forum for Health Research is winding down today in Havana, Cuba. Some great discussions and talks by folks like Laurie Garrett. Personal highlights for me included a Fidel-esque 90 minute ramble by a government minister, and the proud revelation by a top UN eHealth official that he rarely uses the internet and has never had a Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail account.