In Ghana & Liberia health workers are calling each other free of charge.  

In partnership with Vodafone & MTN, Switchboard has created a free calling network with every doctor in Ghana & Liberia.  With over 4 million calls since 2008, physicians have been working together to improve patient care countrywide.

As doctors make free calls to seek advice or refer patients, they also become valuable customers that make paid calls to family & friends, with over $1.5 million in revenue for our telecom partners Vodafone and MTN.
 

In Tanzania, we’re creating the largest network of health workers in the developing world.

Only 6,505 medical & clinical officers manage all rural health centers in Tanzania – the main points of care for a population of 45 million.  These isolated health workers are currently unable to seek advice from almost 2,500 urban doctors or receive government support.

To allow health workers to freely seek advice nationwide, Switchboard is creating a free calling network for all doctors, medical and clinical officers in Tanzania.  These 9,000 practitioners will join our partner telecom Vodacom – collectively sharing knowledge and saving lives.

Free calling networks incentivize health workers to register their mobile phone.

Physicians in Ghana and Liberia registered for our networks and Switchboard created their first-ever doctor directories in 2010 and 2011.  Every physician received a print directory, allowing them to expand their support network nationwide, consult with new colleagues, and refer patients more effectively.

Switchboard’s easy-to-use mobile registration works with every type of phone.  

In Tanzania, health workers across the country will dial Switchboard’s mobile USSD registration platform and register for our network.  We make it simple to collect mobile numbers for every health worker in the country, enabling rural workers to consult with as many as 34,000 colleagues nationwide.

Two daily SMS to health workers in Kenya improved pediatric malaria care by 24.5%  

The study above shows that simple interventions like receiving best practices, disease outbreak alerts, or lab results can make a significant impact on the quality of care.

For every isolated health worker in Tanzania to receive best practices or disease outbreak alerts instantly on their mobile phone, Switchboard and the Ministry of Health will utilize our Bulk SMS platform.  Not only can we send critical information to large groups of health workers, but practitioners in the field can also reply to vital questions or report medical supply levels.

Health workers gain a nationwide support network. Telecoms gain valuable customers.

In markets where telecom competition is fierce, physicians and health workers are valuable customers.  Our free calling networks improve care and save practitioner’s money on calls to colleagues, so they provide a significant incentive to switch carriers.

Vodafone has only 18% market share in Ghana, yet they have all 2,200 physicians as subscribers.  While practitioners make free calls to seek advice, they also make paid calls to friends and family – with $1.5 million in revenue generated for Vodafone and MTN.

A network of all 34,000 health workers in Tanzania would generate about $6.5 million in annual revenue and transform patient care countrywide.  Switchboard believes that creative business models are the key to nationwide mHealth scale and expansion to new markets.

We’ve created nationwide health networks in Tanzania, Ghana & Liberia.

With access to information from colleagues, health workers can improve patient care.   

To better determine our affect on patient care, we asked 77 physicians in Ghana to rank the impact of our work on a scale from 1-to-10 (very successful). We carried out a similar survey with 50 doctors in Liberia.