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Wednesday, 16 July 2014

mDiabetes program: Mobile technologies are catalysts for development in Senegal

Alcatel-Lucent attended the ceremony for launching the m-Ramadan campaign, which originated from the mDiabetes program, in Dakar on June 16, 2014. Alcatel-Lucent is supporting the Senegalese government, represented by the Minister of Health and Social Action, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and local partners, by participating in the "mDiabetes" program launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as part of the "Be Healthy, Be Mobile" initiative.

The mDiabetes project in Senegal is one of the larger mHealth projects Alcatel-Lucent is involved in. It aims at combating diabetes with an ambitious and innovative campaign based on mobile technology, designed to improve prevention by raising awareness among diabetic patients as well as training health professionals. SMS messages as well as applications will be used as tools in the camp.
Alpin Verlet, head of Alcatel-Lucent in West and Central Africa, and Dr. Awa Marie Coll Seck, Minister of Health and Social Action of Senegal
“Senegal is ready for this mDiabetes project which is in a way a natural extension of the eDiabetes program developed by UNFM. Since 2009, it has helped to establish strong ties of cooperation between France and Senegal around diabetes and new technologies," said Dr Kleinebreil, Vice-President of the UNFM (Université Numérique Francophone Mondiale - a NGO specialized in using ICTs for education in Africa).

This project is a multiple partnership involving many major stakeholders such as  the Senegalese government (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Communication), ITU (International Telecommunications Union), the WHO (World Health Organization), ASSAD (Senegalese  Association  for the Assistance and Support of Diabetes Patients), the African branch of the International Diabetes Federation, the NGO UNFM, the Marc Sankalé Diabetes Center, Alcatel-Lucent, Sonatel/Orange, BUPA (global international health insurance and services company), and Sanofi.

In order to overcome illiteracy and to make the initiative more effective, the Minister of Health and Social Action is planning to create voice messages that offer advice to people with diabetes. This initiative, which is inaugurated around the fasting month of Ramadan, is the first stage of the project in Senegal, with a larger and wider-reaching initiative which will be launched in November 2014.

Within the framework of this partnership, Alcatel-Lucent will provide the Ministry of Health and their partners in Senegal with the MNC technological platform mBox as in-kind contribution to the project and will be responsible for coordinating the SaaS platform (software services) and SAP mobile services for the pilot application of "mDiabetes". This platform will enable mobile services like SMS messages or other applications for widely distributing messages to be used for raising awareness and providing training for people with diabetes who have been identified by the National Center for Combating Diabetes, as well as training health professionals via cellular phones. The aim is to help implement strategies for preventing and combating diabetes and non-communicable diseases. For the end user, i.e. the person suffering from diabetes, it is an opportunity to directly interact with health professionals for better prevention and management of their disease.

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