Mobile phones can worsen healthcare inequalities

The fast spread of mobile phones across low-income countries like India can make it harder for poorer people without phones to access essential health services, new research has suggested. The study by Dr Marco J Haenssgen at the CABDyN Complexity Centre and the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at Oxford analysed publicly available data from more than 12,000 households in rural India with sick family members in 2005 and 2012. The study suggests that healthcare services expect more people to use a mobile phone, and that mobile phone users are more assertive when they compete for access to the few doctors and nurses in rural India. In areas where mobile phones become more common, people left behind have more difficulty accessing healthcare services. 'Because of their fast spread globally, mobile phones are often seen as a blessing for development, especially in lowand middle-income countries,' said Dr Haenssgen. 'This perception is particularly true when it comes to healthcare provision for the rural poor. 'According to the GSMA - the trade body that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide - mobile technology can increase the quality, reduce the cost and extend the reach of healthcare to benefit millions.' The GSMA operates among others a platform to record new mobile health projects, which currently registers 1,081 such projects.