Summer 2012: Cellphones in Southeast Asia

Once again this summer I am planning on making use of this travel blog. I have another couple countries on my itinerary for the next couple months, and I am looking forward to both trips.

I am leaving for Bangladesh this Saturday, the 26th, and will be there for two weeks. Then on June 12th, I'm flying directly to Nepal where I will be until August 5th.

The first leg of my summer will take place in Bangladesh. If you are reading this, you have probably already heard of the Village Zero Project. Two other Tufts Students (now alum!) and myself are working to track the spread of cholera in Bangladesh using cellphones. It is theorized that cholera spreads geographically starting in the coastal regions before moving their way inwards. Our eventual goal is to have community health workers use cellphones to track this propagation so that we can create a map of key intervention points. This summer, we are going to be laying the groundwork for the project. We are going to meet with key partners as well as use already collected data to create a preliminary map.

Following Bangladesh, I am flying straight to Nepal. In Nepal, I am going to be interning with Nyaya Health as a part of a partnership with the Tufts Chapter of Globemed. Nyaya Health operates a hospital and community health worker program in the remote Achham district of far-western Nepal. With Nyaya, I will be an intern in their research and data department. Primarily I will be working on implementing a new cell phone system that will allow for community health workers in remote areas, to use cellphones to aggregate the data they collect about the population of the district.

All in all, this summer will be filled with Mobile Health, or mHealth which is a growing field that uses new technology to impact global public health. I will try to post with some regularity. Please also follow the Village Zero Project and the Tufts Globemed blogs which have links to the right. I will also work on updating the two of those internet permitted.

Summer 2012, here we go!