IRIN examines the feasibility of using a smartphone equipped with a glass lens to detect the presence of parasitic worms in stool samples, a concept that “could have a significant impact on the diagnosis of intestinal parasites that affect millions in remote, rural parts of the world, where even the most…

“Mobile phones, along with local knowledge and field support, can help to ensure the effective diagnosis and treatment of malaria in remote rural areas, according to a study” conducted in Bangladesh and published this month in Malaria Journal, SciDev.Net reports. Examining “almost 1,000 phone calls to report suspected cases of malaria that were…

Writing in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog, Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, discusses how social media is advancing the conversation surrounding global newborn health. “During the Global Newborn Health conference that was held [last] week in Johannesburg, South Africa,” social media “transcended continents,…

“In just six years, DKT Ethiopia has transformed its system for tracking contraceptive sales from pins and pencils to computers and satellites and, in the process, helped create a family planning and HIV prevention success story in the Horn of Africa,” David Olson, a global development communications consultant, writes in…

The Washington Post examines how new mobile applications are transforming remote parts of Africa. “Across sub-Saharan Africa, technology, particularly mobile technology, has transformed the lives of digital-savvy entrepreneurs,” the newspaper writes, adding, “While many are forging successful high-tech businesses in urban centers, others are finding ways to help people ……

Noting the “proportion of households in developing countries below the extreme-poverty line (now measured as $1.25 per person per day at international prices) has declined sharply” since 1980, Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the U.N. Secretary General on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute,…

Noting that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month told the U.N. Security Council “that sexual violence occurred wherever conflicts raged, ‘devastating survivors and destroying the social fabric of whole communities,'” Inter Press Service reports “the United Nations is unleashing an army of Women Protection Advisers (WPAs) to specifically curb sexual…

“According to UNICEF, 4,300 mothers die in South Africa every year due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth, 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 23,000 die in their first month of life,” Imani Cheers, a multimedia producer and assistant professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George…

Writing in the United Nations Foundation blog, Tara Morazzini, an intern at the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Health (MAMA), notes the observance of United Nations Day last week and reflects on progress made toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “Mobile technologies offer significant promise to advance sustainable development now…

The Atlantic speaks with Anurag Mairal, director of technology solutions at PATH Health Technologies, about PATH’s “wor[k] with the commercial sector to scale, distribute, and market its innovations.” Mairal’s “approach includes disruptive innovation (disrupt the global health system by changing the cost equation, moving away from a grants-based approach to…