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My former employer, IntraHealth International, has teamed up with one of my favorite causes, Hope Phones, to provide cell phones to health workers in Africa. Your old or outmoded phone can help a health worker provide child health services, obstetric consultations, safe deliveries, and HIV prevention and treatment.

Health workers, especially those in remote areas, equipped with mobile phones can transmit and receive up-to-the-minute health information that can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency, improving the overall quality, effectiveness and impact of health care in underserved locations.

This project allows us to increase the impact and reach of health workers exponentially…. With cell phones and a well constructed health information system, we can transmit and receive critical information faster and more efficiently, saving resources, saving lives and building capacity.

Why not go through your desk drawers and donate all those unused phones you undoubtedly have sitting around today? You’ll find more information about the program here.

I have had a peripheral involvement in OPEN as it has developed, contributing ideas and writing when needed, and I have watched it grow from a germ of an idea with interest. Of course, I do think there will be some natural synergies between the project I am heavily involved in, developing open source HR information systems for managing data about health workers, and the goals of OPEN. I am looking forward to seeing how that all shapes up.

OPEN is all over the web, so if you want to learn more, here are some ways to do so:

• OPEN website
• OPEN on Facebook Causes
• OPEN on MySpace
• YouTube channel
• Follow OPEN on Twitter