MIT's Sana: open-source platforms key to mHealth in developing countries

Donna Cusano

Following up on MIT’s Sana mobile EMR awards (TA, 20 April), an interview with Trishan Panch, Sana’s strategy and operations head, discusses their preference for open-source platforms, especially the Google Android OS, to lower acquisition costs for their deployments in the Philippines, India, Mexico and rural North Carolina. With open-source platforms, software can be downloaded online cheaply and installed on phones.  Android phones are only at the early stages of multiplying, but they are already coming down in price (see Verizon) which is key to this strategy.  Android Helps Mobile Health Apps Get Well–Light Reading Mobile.