U.S. global AIDS relief program teams up with mobile alliance

The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, commonly known as PEPFAR, has become a founding partner of a global alliance for mobile health.

At last week's inaugural mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C., an event put on by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby announced that PEPFAR was joining the United Nations Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Vodafone Foundation in the mHealth Alliance, a group seeking to bring health services to the most remote corners of the globe using mobile networks and technologies. "In Africa and around the world, the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices presents an important opportunity to deliver efficiently and rapidly a suite of HIV/AIDS health services, from education and awareness to remote data collection and monitoring, communication and training for health care workers, disease tracking and diagnostic treatment and support," Goosby said.

According to the alliance partners, PEPFAR's participation will augment HIV/AIDS programs in developing nations by helping to introduce mobile-enabled technologies and by sharing best practices, including the experiences of Phones for Health, a public-private partnership led by the U.S. project.

For more about PEPFAR and the mHealth Alliance:
- read this mHealth Alliance press release

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