South African Minister urges mHealth market to fulfil potential
Obed Bapela, Deputy Minister of Communications for South Africa, opened this year’s GSMA-mHA Mobile Health Summit with a message that there is enormous potential for mobile health services but barriers to mainstream success must be overcome. “ICT is essential to improving the quality of life, particularly in rural areas… mobile health can indeed play a significant role in reaching this objective,” Bapela stated. Bapela sees four main benefits of mobile health: increasing life expectancy, decreasing maternal and child mortality rates, combating HIV/AIDS and controlling tuberculosis, and strengthening the entire health ecosystem.