LIVE FROM GSMA-mHA MOBILE HEALTH SUMMIT 2012: Mobile phone technology can help rebalance the inequality of access to healthcare between rich and poor as well as urban and rural dwellers, according to a speech made by Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape, speaking today at the Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town.

Mobile health offers an “incredible, direct access for citizens if effectively harnessed," she said. The technology can also save governments money at a time when long-term trends indicate growing healthcare costs.

Ten years ago the provincial government of Western Cape spent more on education than health. Now that situation has reversed. “There is some debate about which is the best investment,” said Zille.

Africa is positioned to reap huge benefits with its mobile penetration of approximately two thirds of the population, she said. In South Africa, penetration is more than 70 percent.

Zille gave a few examples of how mobile health is working in South Africa, including a scheme to deploy SMS in clinics for making appointments with patients rather than having them queue which can involve an all-day wait.

She also mentioned Mixit, a popular SMS-based P2P advice health service. And using mobile phones so that health workers can collect data. This capability is underutilised, she said. Mobile technology can capture data and enable it to be analysed immediately. “It can pick up trends as they arise”. This technology was reportedly used to pick up quickly on a typhoid outbreak in Uganda in 2010, she said. Other services include remote monitoring of patients.

The government of Western Cape is also utilising mobile technology in Healthcare 2020, its future plan for healthcare in the province.

The provincial government also wants the state, including Cape Town, to become a hub for health technology, one of the reasons it was chosen to host the health summit in the first place.