The Qtel Group Introduces “Mobile Health” Services
New mHealth Service aims to Enhance Lifestyle and Combat Chronic Illnesses across its footprint
Doha, Qatar and Barcelona, Spain
The Qtel Group today launched a strategic partnership with The Mobile Health Company to offer “mHealth” (mobile health) services across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
mHealth solutions use mobile phone technology to deliver lifestyle guidance and continuous updates through customers’ handsets. The Qtel Group will be among the first companies in the region to deploy these cutting-edge solutions and is emphasising wellness enhancement and prioritising illnesses that have an endemic impact across the region.
The partnership with The Mobile Health Company will educate customers, giving them advice and information on diet and exercise. With expert guidance, the service will enable people to make informed choices regarding their lifestyle, empowering them to take control of their own health, and that of their families.
The interactive range of services will provide instantaneous health information and interpretations around diet, obesity, diabetes, and personal health via mobile phones. They will also enable consultation via private mHealth accounts and deliver a range of special healthcare applications.
Customers will be able to subscribe directly to the services, and personalize the package of applications. Utilizing a mass population approach, the mHealth service will also be targeting customers at rural and remote communities with limited access to conventional health services.
Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Qtel said: “Mobile health technology provides us with the opportunity to deliver personalized, highly-relevant health content and applications in partnership with health professionals and experts, directly to the subscribers. Our partnership with The Mobile Health Company will offer vital and immediate information for people across the Middle East, and is a further step in our quest for leadership in the field of innovation.”
Obesity and diabetes are chronic conditions that have serious consequences for sufferers, and The World Health Organisation predicts that the number of diabetes patients in the MENA region will reach 51.7 million by 2030. As well as the direct health impact, these conditions can lead to other diseases such as blindness, renal failure, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The costs of caring for these illnesses, and the economic impact of losing productive people at an early age, have a further knock-on effect on society.
Dr. Hamad M. Al Omar (MBA), MD, of the Mobile Health Company commented: “Health is an important issue to everyone and being able to access and share information provides an important range of benefits for people. This new partnership with the Qtel Group will help people to stay healthy and empower patients better manage their conditions, and also have a preventative effect to reduce the spread of obesity and diabetes.”
With a range of specially-designed services targeted at specific illness, and information available in a range of languages, the Qtel Group is confident that mHealth will provide an important social service across key markets.
With a footprint extending across 17 countries, supported by advanced network backbones and Internet technology across its markets, the Qtel Group is aiming to be among the first communications companies in the Middle East to play an active role in mHealth development.
– END –
For more information, please contact;
Edward Barnfield
Wallis Marketing Consultants
+974 66055968
Or;
Talal Eid
Qtel International
+974 55871439
About Qtel
Qatar Telecom (Qtel) provides a full range of telecommunications services in Qatar and across its presence in 17 countries. Our vision is to be among the top 20 telecommunications companies in the world by 2020 through expansion in both the MENA region and South East Asia.
