Editorial Board

How Mobile Phones Can Improve Health Care

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Obstetric fistula, an injury that occurs in unattended childbirth and causes incontinence, is among the most intractable challenges of extreme poverty.

In Tanzania, however, a pilot program that relies on mobile-phone communication has brought fistula sufferers in remote areas to a central hospital for reparative surgery. This strategy, if duplicated elsewhere, could offer hope of a new life for many of the estimated 2 million women afflicted with fistula worldwide.