The rise of mobile health (mHealth), particularly within the South African context, has already exceeded expectations. Mobile handsets are now being used in clinical, medical and emergency situations more than ever anticipated. Through the work of public-private partnerships, civil society initiatives and non-profit organisations, cellphone-based patient monitoring mechanisms in South Africa are becoming more and more important.

Cellphones provide the means to implement an effective monitoring and evaluation system for service delivery organisations. Cell-Life’s Lungisa programme provides a platform that enables Cape Town citizens to send text-based, audio and video reports outlining challenges in service delivery. Info4africa’s Impilo project allows consumers of health and wellbeing services to submit feedback on their experiences by responding to USSD-run surveys. SMS programmes are also used to disseminate health-focussed information and the Department of Health’s National Strategic Plan (2012 to 2016) makes mention of SMS systems as a central force in health-related communications strategies.