Nokia India and Arogya World's mhealth project mDiabetes has registered one million users in India, in an official statement they announced. mDiabetes is an ongoing Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment and one of the first and largest programs of its kind in the world.
Started in January, 2012 mDiabetes runs on Nokia Life platform and sends alerts in 12 regional languages to inform Nokia mobile phone users in India regarding Diabetes, its prevention by lifestyle modification.
“mDiabetes is of special significance in India, a country with an enormous diabetes burden. We are encouraged by the positive consumer feedback we have received for our alerts to date. If effective, mDiabetes will add to the evidence base for mHealth and become the cornerstone of a chronic disease prevention model for the developing world. We are pleased with the progress we have made and are well on our way to honoring our CGI Commitment,” said Dr Sandhya Ramalingam, Head, Program Evaluation, Arogya World.
Commenting on the development, B.V. Natesh, Director – Emerging Market Services at Nokia said, “Nokia Life was designed to address livelihood and life improvement needs of consumers in emerging markets such as India. Since launch, the service has been experienced by more than 50 million people across India. With the rapid growth of mobile penetration, campaigns such as mDiabetes have the potential to reach millions of people, helping build awareness and associated behavior change.”
Positive reactions have been obtained from other consumers as well. In 2012, Arogya World asked 750 consumers what they thought of individual mDiabetes alerts. The results obtained were promising – 70% of the consumers said they remembered receiving the alerts, of which more than 90% said the alerts were clear and easy to understand, and importantly, more than 80% were willing to share the alerts with friends and family.
