The INFO Project Blog

Jaw-dropping resulted when the UN released much-reduced estimates of the HIV infections worldwide.

BBC News reported that in 2007, there are 33 million people infected worldwide with HIV, down from previous estimates of 40m.

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HIFA2015′s PDAs-for-development discussion continues with a energetic post from a Malaysian medical professor about generating power for your laptop via your morning workout.

Dear Sina,

The advantage of *mobilephones* lies in their present population penetration which is substantial. Also the general population may not appreciate switching from more portable to less portable devices. In all probability the future mobile phone shall develop present day laptop functionality (PDA etc are approximations that are inching closer). Once that happens (and the present day basic mobile phone is phased out) it may effectively bridge the digital divide between the present day mobile savvy but computer illiterate have nots and the computer literate haves.

I agree on the power consumption front and perhaps the need is acute for devices that can be charged by human muscle power (as in the OLPC laptops that may be charged on hand crank or even pedalling). http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Battery_and_power

I would need to momentarily shift the focus from rural to an urban office scenario with overworked executives, slumped on their desks, staring bleary eyed into their computers. A human muscle powered computer could change this scenario into a dynamic environment where people work and charge their computers on a connected tread mill (the present tread mill monitor is more like a PC monitor that one could work with even while exercising…only needs a keyboard).

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I won’t lie. I take the internet for granted. I can not count the number of times I use it, both at work and at home. I check my Treo while walking my dog. Will I ever be able to live without the internet? Prior to learning about the eGranary Digital Library through a presentation the director Cliff Missen gave at the quarterly Health Information Publications Network meeting, my answer would have been no. However, I am now aware that thousands of people across the developing world are accessing over 10 million high quality resources without the use of the internet.

eGranary is a platform that allows articles and information to be stored on a local area network (LAN), allowing users connected to that network to access documents, even if they are not connected to the internet. Users are able to access items much more quickly through eGranary than if they were to use the internet. Bandwidth is expensive in much of the developing world, and currently those who are lucky enough to have access to the internet are paying very large sums of money for slow access.

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Join the Johns Hopkins INFO Project  ”Send a Handbook Campaign“

World AIDS Day Thanksgiving, and the year end holidays are approaching. What better way to mark these events than to help women and men in developing countries avoid the trauma of unintended pregnancies, the spread of  HIV/AIDS, and the death of a mother or child through an unplanned birth?

Get personally involved by joining INFO’s “Send a Handbook Campaign“ designed to pass along the latest guidance about contraceptive methods to health care providers in developing countries.

• Contribute as little as $10 and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s INFO project will send a print copy of “Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers” to a health care worker in a developing region of your choice.
• Donate here. 
• Read more about our campaign.
• View the entire handbook online here: 

Many thanks for your help and have a great holiday season!

The subject of handheld computers’ role in getting infomation out to remote locations has been whirling around the HIFA2015 network (Health Information for All by 2015). I captured a few messages from this thread:

From: Adesina —
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 1:46 AM
To: HIFA2015
Subject: [hifa2015] Role of hand-held computers (PDAs) (3)

Dear All,

Just to contribute to this ongoing discussion especially to already valuable comments from Bill and Leela. It might be nice to look at the work of Tapan S. Parikh in using mobile phones for copying and transmitting documents in rural India. Here is a link to his website:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/tapan/cv.html

Meanwhile, an attempt is currently underway to stimulate discussion on
HIFA2015 on how these pervasive mobile technologies can be employed to support health workers’ clinical and educational activities in developing countries. The “ice-breaker” for the discussion will be posted on HIFA2015 soon and your contribution is highly solicited.

AED-SATELLIFE is piggy-backing on existing cellular phone networks to distribute information.

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