Following Etisalat’s win of the 2012 mWomen Global Mobile Award at Mobile World Congress this year, we caught up with Mr. Essa Alhaddad, Etisalat Group Chief Commercial Officer, to discuss the win and the mobile service that is improving maternal and child health as well as saving lives across Tanzania, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
What does it mean for Etisalat and partners to have won this award?
Together with our partners, we are extremely honored to be recognized by GSMA for Mobile Health field and especially “Etisalat Mobile Baby program”. Etisalat is committed to harnessing the power of mobile connectivity through innovation to develop products that change people’s lives for the better. The company`s commitment is to provide the necessary technologies to enable people to take charge of their futures, which will lead to accelerated social and economic development that can also save lives and narrow the gender gap. Etisalat’s focus on mHealth and mCommerce solutions have had an immediate impact in emerging markets where access to healthcare and banking services are limited. These accolades are further endorsement of our focus on delivering innovative technologies that have a transformative effect.
How does the entry help women in emerging markets, particularly those living on under $2 a day?
In Sub-Saharan Africa 500,000 women die each year in pregnancy and the risk of maternal death is 50 times higher compared to the developed countries. Studies also indicate that more than 3/4 of maternal deaths take place during or within 24 hours of childbirth and that 4 million babies die during the first 28 days of life.
Most women especially in low-income countries continue to deliver at home for a variety of reasons including cost, preference, culture, and lack of information. Home deliveries could be made safer by reducing the “3 delays” of (1) the decision to seek care; (2) arrival at a health facility; and (3) the provision of adequate care, which Etisalat is addressing through the usage of mobile phones. Etisalat’s Mobile Baby program is a complete suite of services enabling birth attendants and midwives to ensure safer pregnancies/ deliveries by enabling them to quickly and accurately identify, communicate and act on obstetric emergencies. This involves:
• Ultrasound based remote monitoring of pregnancy evolution
• Step by step protocol to identify and report danger signs during labour and delivery
• Money on the phone to pay for emergency transportation
• Communication with the referral facility indicating emergency transfer and requirements on arrival
How innovative and unique is the product from those currently on the market?
Etisalat’s Mobile Baby program supports a seamlessly integrated combination of mobile phone based decision support, data storage, remote diagnosis, communication, messaging, and mobile payments on a single device at the point of care, custom designed to improve maternal health outcomes. In the case of maternal health it is the only fully integrated suite of services that has the potential to save lives and deliver a sustainable business proposition. Integration with Etisalat’s Mobile Payment service ensures delivery of complete service eco-system. These are the most accessible, convenient and secure payment method available in the rural areas served by Mobile Baby program. The mix of various technical service elements (usage of fully data-connected mobile ultrasound equipment or simple handset application) is designed to address market realities, purchasing power, and available infrastructure. As a self-sustainable proposition, the program creates revenue to all members of the ecosystem including birth attendants and medical practitioners; emergency transportation owners and drivers; equipment manufacturers and MNOs financed by the mix of NGO/Governmental schemes; insurance and direct patient payments.
How might this product contribute to closing the mobile phone gender gap?
Etisalat’s Mobile Baby program enables birth attendants and midwives to ensure safer pregnancies/ deliveries by enabling them to quickly and accurately identify, communicate and act on obstetric emergencies.
- The TBA (Traditional Birth Attendant) registers her community referral information directly on the Mobile Baby application. This includes her catchment area; drivers and health facility staff contact details.
- Through the Mobile Baby application the TBA registers mothers during their pregnancy and reporst to the medical facility pregnancy status, danger signs and basic information based on guidelines from MoH, WHO and JHPIEGO.
- The TBA provides support to mothers-in-labor by ensuring health of mother and baby during in-home delivery. Through the application TBA continuously communicate with the doctor “on-call” the status of delivery, symptoms and complications (if any).
- In case of complications through the application: TBA contacts the driver for timely transport, alerts the health facility of mother’s arrival, including any of her risks or danger signs and accompanies the mother to the health facility and pays the driver for transport service using Etisalat’s mCommerce service.
- TBA provides post-partum care after the delivery by taking basic information on mother and baby via the application.
In United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, in addition to the handset based solution, mobile Ultrasound device is utilized for delivering DICOM images to doctors in the major regional hospitals
How is the product scalable and sustainable? What is the business model?
As a self-sustainable proposition Etisalat’s Mobile Baby program brings great social benefit to the population that we cover and serve. It also creates revenue to all members of the ecosystem:
• Birth attendants and midwives are trained and paid through local NGOs/Government schemes for each successful delivery
• Local vehicle owners who transport patient on emergency basis are paid by pregnant ladies or NGO schemes based on each successful transfer to the medical facility
• Equipment for the service is provided by Qualcomm, Etisalat, or GE and leased to the Governmental agencies or NGOs who are also providing maintenance service
• Etisalat is generating revenue through service related data (SMS/3G/GPRS) consumption
What marketing strategies have you engaged in to promote this unique product to women?
During service commercialization and rollout a special attention was given to experiential aspects of service offering.
A major educational and training program is currently being rolled out by local NGOs and Governmental agencies to train birth attendants and midwives on the services functionalities. Feedback from the birth attendants, trainers and medical practitioners is proactively used during ongoing application optimization.
Support of local languages is a key part of our service. In addition to English and Arabic, the user interfaces is also available in Swahili, Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba and soon in Urdu and Pashto. Local cultural preferences and sensitivities that were taken into account during the application development process.
The GSMA principle of “it’s there and it just works” was implemented. The application is pre-installed and fully pre-tested on all handsets used for the programme. In addition to the pre-installed option, in some instances, Etisalat’s Mobile Baby application is remotely pushed directly to the birth attendant mobile device and is automatically installed and pre-configured.
Commercialization of the application doesn’t call for any change in infrastructure at the point of care. The midwife or doctor can use the same ultrasound system as they always have, they don’t have to invest in any servers or devices. The sonographers/midwives/doctors do not have to learn a new technology. It is being activated within their normal workflow.
What does the future hold for the product? What plans have you to extend/expand it?
Since our service launch over 500 birth attendants and midwives have been fully trained on the application and over 10,000 pregnant ladies have been registered in the program.
All birth attendants are provided with required mobile equipment and seven major hospitals and 52 regional health facilities are actively participating in the program in four countries.
Based on experience with service introduction across Tanzania, Nigeria, UAE and KSA, Etisalat is looking to rollout Mobile Baby service across all of its Operations (including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Niger, Central African Republic and Gabon) throughout 2012.