Much of the innovative thinking in mHealth is coming from programs that target populations outside the United States, often in developing countries. Now in a twist of fate, the innovations emerging from the developing world could prove to be a significant springboard for innovation in the developed world.

Here’s a short list of some of the applications folks are using. They are not intended to run on smartphones; they are generally developed to run on low-end cell phones. It’s amazing – for patients and public health initiatives…

TRACNet (in Rwanda) a dynamic information technology system designed to collect, store, retrieve, display and disseminate critical program information, as well as to manage drug distribution and patient information related to the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS. This system enables practitioners involved in anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programs to submit reports electronically and have timely access to vital information. By dialing 3456, a toll free number, or logging onto a bilingual website (English and French), health center staffers can submit or receive program results on HIV/AIDS patients as soon as they are processed. TRACnet uses solar energy chargeable mobile phones, which can be used in the most remote parts of the country.

PatientView is a simple and easy-to-use electronic medical record system (EMR) targeting small clinics or single departments that have little support from professional IT staff. Many of these clinics are currently using paper medical records and would benefit from the improved efficiency and reliability of an EMR, but do not have the technical staff to maintain a large, complex EMR. To address this problem, PatientView was designed to be easy to set up, easy to maintain, and easy to use. Beyond simplicity and usability, PatientView has many mobile features that are useful when working with health workers in the field, like the ability to coordinate SMS to and from the workers, accept forms submitted on mobile phones, and more.

CelloPhone is a revolutionary diagnostic tool that will be able to perform basic diagnostics such as Complete Blood Count, diagnosis of Malaria and TB, and CD4 T Lymphocyte count on the back of a camera phone. The device utilizes a new imaging technique called LUCAS that can take cellular-level images of blood or other liquids without complex lens systems or microscope hardware. An algorithm then analyzes cell morphology to automatically produce a diagnostic result. The diagnostic results will be communicated from the device to a central location using FrontlineSMS, and viewed with our Patient View module and/or sent to OpenMRS with our medical records module. The Ozcan lab at UCLA is developing this device, and we aim to pioneer its use in the developing world.

For a long weekend bonus, I thought I’d include a TED Talk too that take a look at what a difference technology (mobile and other) is making in health and the health care industry…

According to ComputerWorld…

The Mobility Fund, created in 2011 as part if the FCC’s revamp of telephone subsidies under the Universal Service Fund, will award up to $300 million to mobile providers that bring service to new areas. Winning bidders must deploy either 3G service within two years or 4G service within three years of the award. …

The FCC will award the funds in a reverse auction, in which mobile providers will compete to be the lowest-priced provider to bring service to an area. Bidders will compete both with others that may be seeking support in the same area, but also with carriers bidding for support in other areas.

The FCC on Wednesday released a public notice detailing the procedures for Phase I of the Mobility Fund. The window for filing short-form applications opens on June 27 and closes on July 11. The auction will be a single-round, sealed-bid auction, and the FCC will require that the winning bidders provide coverage to at least 75 percent of the road miles in each census tract for which they win support.

In addition to the Phase I funding, the FCC will also offer an additional $50 million in one-time support to tribal lands and $500 million each year for ongoing support of mobile services.

So I went to my panel of experts – Facebook. Although in this case, Facebook did lead me to current and past broadband provider IT directors (and friends of mine). I sent the link and simply asked – what do you think, especially for rural areas? I want to be clear in saying that these guys haven’t used the service and are only commenting on the service described in the article.

The greatest concerns were latency and data caps. A couple pointed out that this is clearly better than dialup – and perhaps better than other existing options but that latency and data caps would be major issues. One who had used satellite in the past said that once another option was made available he opted out of a 3 year contact for the new service and saved enough in overage charges in 7 month to make up for the early cancellation costs.

Nextera Communications, a provider of wireless voice and data, will expand its wireless services to the Duluth area. Nextera has the largest fixed wireless business network in Minnesota, with more than 60 towers throughout the Twin Cities.

Because Nextera’s fixed wireless networks use towers rather than underground cables, there is no risk of outages due to fiber cuts, and installation is fast and unobtrusive.

Nextera’s wireless broadband WiMax service will combine fixed wireless with IP-based voice technology and offer options from 1.5 to 6 Mega bits of bandwidth with voice prioritization, while point-to-point solutions will offer speeds of up to 1 Gigabyte to Duluth-area businesses.

Nextera is a Brainerd/Baxter-based telecommunications company with offices in Duluth, Minnetonka and St. Cloud, providing customized, secure telecommunications services and local customer service to small and mid-sized businesses throughout Minnesota.

I suspect the folks north of Duluth would like to see the expansion expand even more.

Broadband US TV (www.BroadbandUS.TV) invites you to attend the free live video webcast of Spectrum Provisions of Tax Relief Act — Meaning, Impacts and Timing

Wednesday, April 4, 1:00 – 3: 00 pm ET

Register Here

Please join co-hosts Marty Stern of K&L Gates and Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group for the next program in Broadband US TV’s broadband policy free webcast series. This program will focus on the spectrum provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act, the most significant piece of spectrum legislation in almost twenty years, with two expert panels:

Implications for Public Safety and other Governmental Entities featuring Stephen Traylor, Executive Director, NATOA, Brett Kilbourne, Deputy General Counsel, Utilities Telecom Council, Brett S. Haan, Deloitte Consulting, and Roger Wespe, Government Relations Manager, APCO International; and Implications for Broadcasters, Wireless Carriers and Tech Interests featuring Michael Calabrese, New America Foundation, Lawrence Krevor, Vice President, Sprint, and Kevin Krufky, Vice President, Public Affairs, Alcatel-Lucent, and Peter Tannenwald, Member, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth.

For additional details about this event, please click here. This webcast is the latest in Broadband US TV’s Broadband Policy Series/Inside Voices on Critical Choices, which tackles major issues in the broadband field. The programs present high-profile speakers of differing views and elicit lively, spirited and balanced debate. A recent program in the series was entitled “Broadband Competition: Fact or Fiction” originally webcast on February 28, 2012. Watch the program by clicking here.

Verizon – plans to provide service…

Verizon earlier this month announced its HomeFusion product, offering rural wireless Internet access faster than many urban residents have today and riding on the company’s expanding 4G network. You stick a bucket-sized antenna on the side of your house and pay $60 a month and, presto, you allegedly get downloads speeds of up to 12 megabits per second and upload speeds up to five megabits per second. That’s faster than a lot of people get in the Twin Cities.

I just heard someone talk about using Verizon’s MiFi as an alternative to her not-so-great broadband in a suburb of the Twin Cities. I’m a fan of MiFi – but as I learned on a recent road trip, you can hit the data caps pretty quickly. I wouldn’t want to worry about that each month. And as MVTV Wireless points out in the story, Versizon may not be serving the smaller towns (or space between towns) any time soon.

MVTV Wireless (a local wireless provider) is providing wireless service to rural homes now…

MVTV is upgrading its service steadily, now covering almost 20,000 square miles. It’s residential service offers speeds of 2.5 megabits but the non-profit company is preparing for 4G and faster service. He says he’s adding about 100 customers a month.

But he’s not really trying to compete with wired services. “We want to go where people aren’t,” he said. Most of his customers are rural and are switching from satellite service or dial-up service or getting Internet access for the first time. “Wireless is just one piece of the whole puzzle,” he said, but he cautioned people not to rule out the long-term potential of wireless speeds.

Some folks feel that wireless is a Band-Aid that sort of distracts consumers and prohibits providers from investing in fiber…

“Most Americans don’t know what they’re missing” with slower speeds and data caps, said Christopher Mitchell, who follows telecommunications issues for theInstitute for Local Self-Reliance and who is a big proponent of community-built fiber projects. …

Still, Mitchell notes how wireless service can make the economics more difficult for those pushing for high-speed fiber networks.

And yet others feel there is room for both…

“Most tech futurists would say we need them both” said Bill Coleman, who runs the broadband and economic development consulting firm Community Technology Advisors. Simply put, for some people at least, wireless works, he said.

The venture promised and eventually delivered on “community benefits” such as dozens of wireless hotspots, free community internet accounts and a “civic garden” with free access to “culturally sensitive” online taxpayer-funded resources in multiple languages.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all was to be a revolving account managed by the Minneapolis Foundation to bridge the so-called digital divide—a Digital Inclusion Fund (DIF) financed with a “minimum” of five percent of the network’s profits. The Wireless Minneapolis website states that “about $11 million will go into the digital inclusion fund over the 10-year term of the contract.” …

A cumulative total of $1.3 million was projected to be paid into the DIF by the end of year four (2011) with another $1,015,764 million projected to be paid this year. Instead, only $68,307.35 from network profits appears to have been deposited into the fund to date, based on figures from the Minneapolis Foundation.

The problem is that they don’t have the funds to contribute. The article alludes to two potential reasons for this:

1. It’s expensive to deploy a network
2. They have about 30 percent few customers than they anticipated.

So first for other communities looking at building broadband - it’s a reminder to pay careful attention to estimated costs for build out and projected take rates. Those are obviously big parts to the business plan equation and discrepancies mean the difference between success and failure. But back to Minneapolis – I suspect that some frustration here is felt because the estimates probably came from US Internet – the same folks who estimated the amount to be contributed to the DIF.

Another piece to this puzzle is that the US Internet has a guaranteed $12.5 million, 10-year contract with the city of Minneapolis. When we last reported on that contract, it was causing some issues because although many departments did not use wireless, they still paid for it. The latest Freedom Foundation alludes this to still being the case. That may add to the frustration. (Perhaps some of the departments who don’t use wireless could pay into the DIN fund rather than to the provider. Those payments could be credited to the provider’s promise.)

The final sour note…

The 2006 agreement also obligates USI Wireless to hold an annual DIF fundraising event, seek funding from other community sources for DIF, and convene two community meetings per year to encourage digital inclusion. USI Wireless made a $5,000 contribution to the DIF in lieu of holding a fundraiser one year and transferred fundraising efforts to the city, according to the company’s project manager.

“We’re hoping the fundraising efforts are going to supplant the lack of funding that we’re receiving from the percentage of profit we get from USI Wireless and hopefully that will start to pick back up as their financial situation improves and they pay back their loans,” Otto Doll said about the city taking over fundraising efforts. “I’m banking on the fundraising to pick it up more than expecting USI Wireless will increase substantially.”

In the meantime, the only digital inclusion grant made to date in 2012 went to the City of Minneapolis for $25,000. The purpose was to gather data regarding the status of the digital divide in Minneapolis. The survey has been completed and the approximately 2,700 responses are being compiled, but preliminary results indicate a surprising lack of familiarity with the municipal wi-fi network.

“I think they need to get themselves better known out there. For whatever reason, only about one-third of the population knew about them,” Otto Doll, chief information officer for Minneapolis, told FFM. “I would like USI Wireless to advertise their services better to the community because that recognition should be stronger than that.”

This is an ongoing project. There is time for it to turn around – but it’s good to see that someone is keeping an eye on what’s happening. And of course I think the transparency involved in a public-private partnership is valuable – both in terms of taxpayers knowing what happening – but also for other communities looking to find ways to get service in their own towns.

Internet-generated broadband traffic will increase approximately 50% year-over-year on fixed networks and double on mobile networks, driven in large part by “power users” that are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth, according to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The report itself is $7500; so I won’t be using many direct quotes. But again TeleCompetitor highlights from the report…

• HD video content will drive a new level of bandwidth demand, with more than 50% of video and audio streaming destined for a connected TV, an iPad or another mobile device or tablet
• In North America, downstream traffic typically exceeds upstream traffic by a factor of 10 or more
• Web browsing represents a declining share of traffic across the globe, especially in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region. Accordingly IDC advises service providers to deliver more bandwidth in order to spur usage of new services and drive new subscriptions and revenue.

On a potentially related note, I just happened to notice that  a recent Pew Internet & American Life indicates that 23 percent of teens (ages 12-17) have a smartphone. Having just been on a road trip and sharing a wireless network with two members of that demographic (who don’t have smartphones but do have laptops), I think that the IDC estimates are probably conservative because teens are power users. It doesn’t occur to them not to download a video (even full length feature film) and they have time to download and watch them. And uploading video is just as easy.

There are some costs associated with free…

To take advantage of the offer, consumers will need to buy a $50 antenna stick that plugs into a laptop, or a $100 “mobile hotspot” that allows any Wi-Fi equipped device to connect to the Internet.

And free isn’t always top of the line…

Clearwire’s network [NetZero is using Clearwire’s network] has a few problems: it’s based on a broadband technology that the rest of the industry has bypassed, which means the selection of compatible devices is limited.

And the company is hoping to get folks to upgrade…

The free accounts are limited to 200 megabytes of data per month— enough for some email and Web surfing, but little else. Half an hour of full-screen streamed video will eat up the whole month’s allotment. …

When the monthly traffic allotment is exhausted, NetZero cuts off Internet access until the start of the next month, and users are prompted to upgrade to the paid plan.

NetZero will only let users ride free for a year.

Still free can be pretty compelling and a year of free would be an opportunity for someone who might not otherwise get broadband to test the water – maybe build up a business case for adding it to the household budget after the year is up.

Also free is a good opportunity to figure out if the service will work when you live, work or visit. In 2010, I had a chance to try out Ireland’s wireless service for free. Part of their National Broadband Plan was using wireless service to reach remote areas – and I happened to be in one such area for a week. The service was very OK – but with a free trial I could make an informed decision to sign up. (I would have signed up too since shaky broadband beats nothing!)

Note: NetZero doesn’t have anything on their homepage about the free access – but if you click to order, you will see the option.

Here’s the description from the website…

Homeless Hotspots is a charitable innovation initiative by BBH New York. It attempts to modernize the Street Newspaper model employed to support homeless populations.

As digital media proliferates, these newspapers face increased pressure. Our hope is to create a modern version of this successful model, offering homeless individuals an opportunity to sell a digital service instead of a material commodity. SxSW Interactive attendees can pay what they like to access 4G networks carried by our homeless collaborators. This service is intended to deliver on the demand for better transit connectivity during the conference.

WebProNews offered a pretty succinct description…

The experiment–which has already ended–debuted at SXSW this year and involved thirteen homeless participants as mobile hotspots; each person was given their own MiFi device and a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “I am a 4G hotspot.” Also included was their name and a code which gives customers access to 4G broadband service. Minutes could be purchased for a donation of the customer’s choice, although the recommended price was $2.00 for fifteen minutes of service.

WebProNews seemed to feel that this was a potentially dehumanizing experiment. I don’t know.

I have to say that I’ve been in places where I would have gladly paid someone for wireless access. And it seems like a more fruitful approach than simply asking folks for money, which is an option some people take.