Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Uganda Wireless Health-Care Aid

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 16:38:55 -0500

Uganda Wireless Health-Care Aid

Satellife, a Boston-based non-profit organization specializing in medical technology, has
plans to build a nation-wide wireless computing network for the impoverished health care
system of Uganda. One of the poorest nations in the world, Uganda is at the center of
Africa’s AIDS epidemic. The medical technology will drastically improve the health care
system in the East African nation. Satellife’s system is based on 3,000 to 5,000 Palm
handhelds given to health care providers in the field, which will allow routine health
administration, ordering and tracking of medical supplies, delivery of new treatment
guidelines, and improved communication.

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Uganda Wireless Health-Care Aid

By Leander Kahney

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,58296,00.html

02:00 AM Apr. 01, 2003 PT

A Boston nonprofit has ambitious plans to build a nationwide, wireless computing network
for Uganda's impoverished
health-care system. The project will be built "on the cheap" using the country's existing
cell-phone network, Palm handhelds and
new battery-powered, wireless Linux servers.

Satellife, a nonprofit organization specializing in medical technology, hopes the network
will significantly improve health care in
the poor East African country, which is a little more than 91,000 square miles -- or about
the size of the United Kingdom.
Uganda only has 1,120 miles of paved road, compared to the United Kingdom's 230,000 miles
of covered roads.

"I think this is going to be a giant leap forward (for Ugandan health care)," said
Satellife executive director Holly Ladd. "It could
have significant benefits in health outcomes for people there."

Uganda, one of the poorest countries in the world, is at the center of Africa's AIDS
epidemic. Nearly 1.9 million people, or 10
percent of the adult population, are infected with HIV. AIDS orphans are estimated to be
1.1 million, according to the Uganda
AIDS Commission.

Though Uganda has a widespread and functioning health-care system, it has none of the
administrative infrastructure that is
taken for granted in developed countries. Satellife hopes a wireless computing network
could be a first step in alleviating that.

Satellife's system will be based on 3,000 to 5,000 Palm handhelds given to doctors and
health-care workers in the field. The
handhelds will be used for routine health administration, ordering and tracking medical
supplies, delivering new treatment
guidelines and, of course, communication.

In the field, the handhelds will connect to inexpensive, battery-powered Linux servers set
up across the country.

Built by WideRay, a San Francisco startup, the Jack servers have built-in GPRS radios,
which afford them an always-on
connection to Uganda's near-ubiquitous cell-phone network.

About the size of a thick hardback textbook, the Jack servers act as "caching" servers,
storing content sent to them over the
cell network from the administration's computers in Kampala. In turn, reports and e-mail
received from the handhelds are
relayed wirelessly back to the capital. The servers communicate with handhelds using an
infrared link.

The servers are powered by industrial-grade batteries and a single charge lasts up to a
year.

"It's all you need to provide connectivity in remote locations like these," said Saul
Kato, WideRay's founder and CEO. "The big
issue is connectivity. There are no landlines. The only real infrastructure is cellular.
Some of the facilities are literally huts, but
you don't need any other hardware on site."

WideRay's Jack servers can be found in several shopping and sports centers in the United
States, and will soon be deployed all
over Europe. San Francisco's baseball stadium, for example, has Jack servers for
delivering stats and software to fans.
WideRay makes versions that are equipped with infrared as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
wireless technologies.

"It's an incredible project," said Kato. "There's no other way to deploy this kind of
thing. It's a moneymaker for us, but its also
serving a critical need. It's good every way you look at it."

Satellife plans to launch a pilot program in Uganda later this year with about 50 WideRay
servers and several dozen handhelds.
The trial is funded by a Canadian body, the International Development Research Centre.
Satellife hopes more money will be
forthcoming, allowing the project to go nationwide.

Last year, Satellife ran a trial program in Uganda to test the utility of handhelds in the
field. About 100 Palm handhelds were
given to schools to use as e-textbooks, and to health-care workers for gathering survey
data.

Satellife's Ladd said the project went very well: The handhelds are low cost, easy to use,
and very portable. Few were
damaged or lost, and they greatly improved administration.

For example, health-care workers fill out a standard treatment form for every patient.
Normally it takes an average of two
months just for the forms to be transported from remote areas to Kampala. Handhelds cut
delivery time to 24 hours, she said.

Ladd said good management is critical to Uganda's overburdened health-care system.
"Trending and tracking drug usage and
demand is essential," she said. "They need to make sure supplies get to where they are
needed and in time to be effective."

During last year's trial, the handhelds also provided many health-care workers with their
first access to e-mail, Ladd said.

"Here (in the United States), people use these technologies to keep their calendars and
phone books," she said. "But in Africa,
it's more computing power in their hand than they've ever seen."