Airtel joins GSMA's mobile health programme

Bharti Airtel today said it has joined GSMA's mobile health partnership programme which aims to provide a range of services to women and children across 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"...Collaborative partnership is aimed at developing sustainable mHealth services that meet public health needs," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
GSMA's mobile health partnership programme was announced in June 2014. The partnership aims to connect the mobile and health industries to collaboratively develop commercially sustainable mHealth services that meet public health needs.
GSMA is a global body of telecom operators.
"This partnership takes full advantage of mobile technology to provide healthcare information and services in Sub-Saharan Africa to support the scale-up of mHealth in nutrition, maternal and child health," Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria said.

He added the partnership will leverage existing and new Airtel SIMs to allow access to health content, health registration and data collection.
Airtel said through these commitments health content, patient registration, data collection and critical diagnostics will increase the access to health care for vulnerable women and children across Africa, while providing the delivery mechanism for mHealth services.
"The GSMA mHealth programme is committed to connecting the mobile and health industries to develop commercially sustainable mHealth services...," GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer Tom Phillips said.