“Pressures on the health services around the world are growing and mobile is seen as a channel to deliver innovative healthcare solutions,” said Dr Craig Fridericks, Director of Health, GSMA. “Many new developments in this area are coming out of the academic community and the GSMA with its partners wants to foster and stimulate this fresh thinking.”
During the challenge, teams of university students will be asked to develop a mobile health concept that will address a specific healthcare need. These concepts could take the form of a business concept or a technology development. The teams will compete to reach the challenge finals, which will be hosted at Cape Town in May 2012.
Two members of the top 10 teams will be invited, expenses paid, to attend the Summit and present their entries to a judging panel comprised of venture capitalists, major industry players and thought leaders in the mobile and heath ecosystem. The winning team will be awarded up to $5,000 worth of training and mentoring towards the future development of their innovation.
“The Qtel Group is proud to sponsor the GSMA Mobile Health University Challenge and as a supporter of the development of m-Health eco systems for the regions of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, this competition is in-line with our overall mHealth strategy,” said Dr. Nasser Marafih, CEO, the Qtel Group. “We aim to support innovative best practices for deploying and implementing wireless technologies and communication systems to enable access to healthcare and health-related applications and information.”
“Qualcomm is breaking new ground yet again, helping companies in the medical device, pharmaceutical and life services industries develop connected health solutions,” said Rick Valencia, VP and GM of Qualcomm Wireless Health.”
