More People Have Mobile Phones than Electricty
When I first saw this chart it really knocked my socks off because it was so astounding to me. Check it out:
I’m not sure how this works exactly, but it say that more people have a mobile phone than have electricity. Do they take it into “town” to a charging station kind of like how many go for water? Unrelated is how many people don’t have safe drinking water. That’s a topic for a different blog, but it makes me sad to think about.
I’ve always thought that the mobile health opportunity internationally was tremendous. In so many countries they’re a mobile first internet community. Many won’t ever use a PC and internet in a web browser on a PC. Their only way to connect will be through a mobile device.
This is why mobile health is such a tremendous opportunity. So much good can come from it if it’s implemented properly. I look forward to seeing it happen.
Easy explanation: A lost of people in developed countries have two or more mobile phones.
We should try to maintain the perspective and develope adequate international health programmes: Easy access to fresh water and food, education, cheap antibiotics, quality primary care services. Mobile health could and shoul wait until the priorities are satisfied.
I once saw a homeless lady curled up in a corner talking on her cell phone while it was charging (plugged into a building’s external power outlet). Maybe she represents the majority of the homeless?