One of the big problems people living in rural communities face is the difficulty/expense of access to health professionals. Often when a child gets ill a family member must take time off work and buy two expensive tickets to a city to see if this is a passing cold or a potentially life-threatening condition.
Hon Weng Chong wants to solve this problem using smartphones. Using a fairly simple physical design and a sophisticated software program, Mr. Chong has created a stethoscope attachment that can diagnose pneumonia. While the device is in early stages, it sounds like a very promising idea and has already spawned StethoCloud, a company to capitalize on the idea.
Unfortunately, smartphone penetration in many developing counties is not high enough to make this a truly viable business solution as yet. If StethoCloud can avoid the pitfalls of launching a product designed for a market that can’t afford to purchase it, we should see a reduction in pneumonia related deaths, especially in areas where access to a doctor is limited. We should also be ready for more entrepreneurs to use smartphones to diagnose additional diseases.
There are some interesting business models that can help StethoCloud go to market. One potential idea is to use micro-credit to get the product in rural communities. Similar to the phones ladies of Grameen Phone, the smartphone and attachment could be bought on a loan that is repaid by the operator as they charge small amounts to assist in diagnostics.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-26/hon-weng-chong-paging-dr-dot-smartphone