The non-governmental organization Amref Flying Doctors has designed a platform for health workers in Africa that provides remote training via their cell phones. The tool is called Help, which stands for ‘Healthcare Learning Platform’.
The objective of the initiative is to reach remote and isolated regions on the continent and areas where inhabitants do not have access to basic healthcare systems. To do this, the platform uses two simple, intuitive tools: text messages and voice recordings.
With this technology, healthcare workers can also stay up to date with the issues that affect their communities and carry out diagnostic consults.
At the moment, a Help pilot scheme is running in Kenya where it has been used in 300 different cases. The second implementation phase will take place during 2016 and the objective is to reach three thousand people in rural and urban areas as well as nomadic communities. Help’s biggest challenge in this stage will be to collaborate with child vaccination campaigns as well as to increase the number of pre-natal check-ups and support medical visits.
