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mDhil - mobile health information

India

Nandu Madhava

Organization type:
for profit
Budget:
$250,000 - $500,000
Website:
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http://www.mdhil.com

Health care
Health education
HIV/AIDS
Maternal health
Reproductive health
Sexuality
Wellness

Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

mDhil provides basic healthcare information to our users via text messaging, mobile web browser, and interactive digital content. We envision
the mobile handset providing our services and content to people who want to know more about common health conditions & diseases. Since
launching in March 2009 we have reached over 150,000 users in India with info on sexual health, HIV, family planning, etc.

About You
Organization:
mDhil Health Information Services
Visit website
Section 1: About You
First Name

Nandu

Last Name

Madhava

Website

http://www.mdhil.com

Country

, KA

Section 2: About Your Organization

Is your initiative connected to an established organization?

Yes

Organization Name

mDhil Health Information Services

Organization Phone

+91 9972205331

Organization Address

16 Rhenius St., Raintree Hall, Flat 4B, Richmond Town, Bangalore, India 560025

Organization Country

, KA

How long has this organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Your idea
Country your work focuses on

, KA

Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?

We use mobile phones to reach people with health knowledge. Community health outreach in emerging countries like India has traditionally been
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done via group discussions and distribution of printed materials. Internet penetration in India is still low, which creates a challenge to reach citizens
with information on taboo subjects like sexual health. When 58% of Bangalore's young girls think they can get pregnant from kissing and holding
hands, when India has the 2nd highest HIV cases, when infant mortality and heart disease are rampant, we need innovative methods to
communicate public health information. Having launched our SMS service in early 2009, we have already reached over 150,000 people. Citizens
are willing to pay a nominal fee for daily health alerts via SMS on topics relevant to their conditions and lives.

Furthermore, we've used our experiences in mobile tech and public health in India to create a SMS scratch-card service and interactive system to
record subscriber information in a unique health record tied to individual phone numbers. This let's us send targeted health content to the end-user
for follow up and disease management. Our service works on even the simplest handsets - no need for high-end, expensive cell phones. The idea
is based on key tenets of behavioral science and public health communication: timely, easy-to-understand, and desired health information creates
greater user engagement for positive health outcomes.

Since India recently completed the 3G auction for mobile spectrum, we are now advancing our services to create mobile health applications, a
WAP health portal, and youth-focused video content (esp. around reproductive health). As the market for cell phone services advances, we plan to
use increased mobile penetration for dissemination of accurate health information.

Do you have a patent for this idea?

Impact
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact

From rural to urban, young to old, Indians across the spectrum suffer from a lack of access to basic, accurate health and wellness information. A
large number of illnesses Indians live with are easily preventable, and quality of life can significantly improve with simple measures integrated into
daily living. Our SMS content is relevant to a large section of society:

-Girls and women who have been told myths about their reproductive health (e.g, menstruation and fertility)
-Pre-diabetics who are seeking easily adoptable changes to their diet
-Pregnant women who are unsure what to expect from their second trimester
-Smokers trying hard to quit but repeatedly failing
-Young males who are curious about their risks for HIV and STIs
-The executive with high blood pressure who can vastly improve her BP with stress management techniques and exercise
-Grandparents wanting to prevent bone loss and disabling physical ailments
-Men and women curious about options for contraception (like the female condom, which is available in limited parts of India but which most don't
know about)

These are just a few examples of the over-550 million Indians using mobile phones who desire healthy living and who can achieve it by easily
accessing our reliable information over mobile phones, through either our SMS subscription packages, health portal, or upcoming mobile
application and call-in line.

To date, we've reached over 150,000 Indians through our several national mobile carriers like Airtel, Idea Cellular, and Reliance.

Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing

Indians lack access to basic accurate healthcare information that could help prevent unnecessary illness due to poor infrastructure, cultural norms,
and a shortage of trained health professionals. Current overall internet penetration is low, but mobile internet is growing rapidly. India’s health
system is struggling, with the ratio of doctors/nurses to patients being far below the world average. With government spending growing at an
anemic pace over the next decade, our society’s health needs just aren’t being met. In relation, cultural norms make many health topics taboo for
discussion, like sexual health, reproductive information, family planning, HIV/AIDS. Hence, too many people rely on misguided information from
family members, people with limited training, or unqualified health ‘quacks.’ The struggling health of this nation is a fundamental quality of life and
human rights issue that can not be ignored.

We make a significant effort to create and innovatively disseminate reliable content that "keeps it real" – easily digestible, fun, current, and
uniquely tailored to the Indian context. Our proprietary content comes from doctors, nurses, and public health professionals educated and
practicing at leading institutions such as the Harvard School of Public Health, Columbia University, the Manipal Institute (India), Wockhardt
Hospital (India), and Columbia Asia (India). We feel incredibly lucky to have connected with so many people in the health sector who are equally
passionate about health justice and who have nuanced insights into the pulse of India’s health consumers.

Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What
might prevent that success?

We're expanding our partnerships beyond mobile carriers to grow the user-base for our scratch-card SMS service. For example, we've launched a
pilot program with the renowned heart specialty hospital, Narayana Hrudayalaya (where the poor receive subsidized high-quality care), to distribute
our scratch cards to patients for targeted health info. We believe strongly in the value of partnerships, continued innovative thinking, developing
unprecedented content for the Indian context, and bringing on bright, passionate colleagues onto our team.

Currently, our team is getting ready for the launch of 3G mobile services in India by developing an interactive web portal with additional WAP site
for mobile web browsing. Our team has helped to create innovative video content that will be viewable over a large percentage of mobile phones.
We feel that a health portal is an important complement to our SMS service so people can search for detailed articles and youth-focused video
content (e.g., we've created videos to talk about topics like sexual and reproductive health in ways never done before with an Indian audience), as
well as engage in frank dialogues about health via mobile web 2.0.

Developing complementary fee-based services like a downloadable mobile quiz further increases our ability to expand the user base and provide
crucial health info along with our SMS subscriptions. We've even been approached by stakeholders in other South-East Asian countries for our
SMS services, so building our capacity to scale is crucial.

We wholeheartedly believe in the power of social media to successfully expand our innovation and impact health - find us on Twitter and Facebook!
We use these channels to develop our thought-leadership and brand recognition in the health and social enterprise space.

Challenges that we face include:

-Selecting which projects and services will enable us to grow in impact and user-base
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-Effectively maximizing social media tools like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook
-Consistently creating compelling content for our developing web portal
-A rapidly evolving mobile space, where mobile technology and business models change often
-We are a classic start-up....a small, dedicated team that needs additional smart minds to help out!

Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible

It's tough to look 3 years down the road when mobile services change every 6 months in India! For example, every month there are nearly 15
million new cell phone subscribers in the market.

Our goal for 2010 is to reach 1 million users of our health content via SMS and mobile web.

For 2011 we hope to reach 3 million users - aided by the growth of 3G and the falling price of handsets.

In 2012 we hope to reach significant scale not only in India but in other emerging markets as well.

How many people will your project serve annually?

More than 10,000

What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?

$50 - 100

Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?

Yes

If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?

We hope that our innovation and its impact will encourage policymakers to invest more in preventative health measures for our country's people.
We also hope that governments, NGOs, schools, and similar institutions serving the common good will see the immense benefit in providing low-
cost mobile health information to their constituents.

Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?

Yes

Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?

Yes

Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?

Yes

Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?

No

Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise

We seek to create the greatest health impact possible, and doing that alone is unwise as well as difficult. NGOs, businesses, and goverments
have developed trusted relationships with their constituents in diverse communities that are all impacted by the need for better health. Such
institutions know their communities' health needs and strengths. Hence NGOs, telecom carriers, clinics, etc. help us understand what targeted
health content communities most need and how to best distribute. In relation, our field work with partner organizations helps us hear their personal
stories & insights into what challenges Indian communities face.

We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model

Our initiative was first self-funded, a true by-the-bootstraps start-up. We received our Series A round of social venture funding by the end of 2009.

We generate revenue through our health SMS packages (e.g., 30-day subscription for Rs. 30, averages out to Rs. 1 per day, equivalent to $0.02
per day) disseminated through the major mobile operators (like Airtel, Reliance, Idea). Additional revenue will be generated from our scratch-card
service, advertising on our health portal and videos, and other mobile health services in development.

The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?

Yes - the moment occured while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I used to work as a translator for US doctors doing free clinics. It was there I
realzied that a majority of people suffer due to a lack of access to accurate health & wellness information.

mDhil has sourced consumer queries from the grassroots to uncover relevant topics for content. University students, women’s groups, local
clinics, NGOs, and experienced doctors have assisted us in understanding the challenges in health, especially with a focus on the Indian market.
We heard the same story over and over again: access to basic information on health issues can empower people to make positive outcomes in
their lives.

Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.

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 I was raised in Texas, the son of Indian immigrants. As a Peace Corps volunteer right after college, working with local health clinics in the
Dominican Republic, I developed a passion for public health in emerging economies. We saw too many cases of people coming into the clinic with
easily preventable illnesses and the rampant misinformation around some topics in particular, like sexual health. After graduating from Harvard
Business School I wanted to start my own enterprise that would have a large social impact on the health of India.

How did you first hear about Changemakers?

Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)

If through another source, please provide the information

n/a

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