This document describes the work of Dr. Livia Bellina and the nonprofit organization MobileDiagnosis. It discusses how Dr. Bellina used her mobile phone to take photos of blood samples under a microscope and send them via MMS to diagnose malaria in Lampedusa, Italy in 2008. This led to the creation of MobileDiagnosis to provide remote medical diagnostics and education to resource-limited areas. MobileDiagnosis has trained local healthcare workers and connected rural clinics to urban hospitals in countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1. Tecnologia appropriata e nuove metodologie di comunicazione
per i paesi a risorse limitate : m health e m-education
MobileDiagnosis

2. I am livia

3. I was a baby , a normal baby
I went to school
The world was in my hands

4. I became a doctor,
a researcher, a pathologist

5. I got married
I had my children

6. I became livia
the woman who I am ,a woman,a wife, a mother and a medical
doctor, with my life, my family, my children : a normal life

7. I was medical doctor in Lampedusa Island

8. There are many things in our life that will catch our eyes
, but only a few will catch our heart.
Day by day , the days were putting on my eyes, on my
mind and on my hearth a reality that I had never knew,
never considered . the migrations the wars
the death the mothers and children refugees
the people without a hope the human rights
Suddenly all the fears of those people,
worries, anxieties, the their pain became of
mine. I had the compassion , the commitment,
the feeling for those world so far but near, so near…

9. chapter 1 : emergency

12. The First Action :Response to an Humanitarian Emergency
Lampedusa, 2008
for the urgent need to confirm a diagnosis of malaria from a
blood sample of an African immigrant
I took a picture of the microscopic field using the camera
incorporated in my cheap mobile-phone, and sent it via MMS
for tele-diagnostic purposes to a reference center.

13. http://youtu.be/ox2gwQ1O2QI

14. After the “Lampedusa experience” we showed that m-phones can be
easily used without any adaptor to take images from the microscope
and send them for remote reference.

15. Chapter 2
The decision to sharing my work
The path
the studies
The meeting with Eduardo Missoni
the first network of friends
The Association MobileDiagnosis
MobileDiagnosisCreative Team
The future : the incubator of ideas

16. The path
Advanced Course in “Basic laboratory for tropical disease and health
cooperation”, Verona Negrar Hospital - Dr. Zeno Bisoffi
Advanced Course in “Tropical Medicine and Health Cooperation”
Florence Careggi University - Pro f. Alessandro Bartoloni
Course in “Management of transmissible disease in sub saharianan
Africa”, at Pemba (Zanzibar De Carneri Foundation
Master of Medicine of Poverty Emargination and Migration 5° MEMP
of Caritas –Rome Idente Foundation . and more

17. In each courses where I was attending , the professors,
interested to my work, gave to me their availability to be
consultant friends
Was borning the network of MobileDiagnosis…..

18. This described Method has been filed for patent in April 2008,
with the sole purpose to protecting the idea from commercialization and
consent its free use and dissemination.
The Meeting with Eduardo Missoni
In 2009 I met Eduardo Missoni. He immediately
understood the relevance of the her Method, and
after only two months they published the method
it together in Diagnostic Pathology, an international
open access scientific journal. It was the beginning
of their collaboration, based on common vision and goals
MobileDiagnosis®, the Association No Profit
In 2010 Livia, Eduardo, Giorgio and Vincenzo Prestigiacomo (Livia’s sons)
founded MobileDiagnosis® a Non Profit Association to advocate the global
access to care and to education.
http://www.mobilediagnosis.net

19. MobileDiagnosis® Creative
Team
In 2010 was set up a team of young professionals in web design,
architecture, design, engineering, project specialists, which assemble
cooperate with freelancers to promote MobileDiagnosis®.
The team works to for increasing the visibility of MD and
for the development of new methods of remote training
and innovative technological solutions for helping the
rural communities in a sustainable way. The current
MDCT members are:
Giovanni Azzolina, Chiara Consiglio, Francesco Consiglio, Giulia Delia,
Nadia La Chiusa, Annalisa Maggio, Roberto Ingrassia, Domenico
Scarpinato, Fabrizio Vitrano, Ilenia Nucatola, Giorgio Prestigiacomo and
Emilio Anzon and Francesco Picone and more ….

20. MobileDiagnosisCreative Team

21. Chapter three : my experience with a
Nobel :Professor Muhammad Yunus
“Dear Professor Yunus I wont to be useful…..”
During the writing of the first paper on the method
(published with Eduardo Missoni
on Diagnostic Pathology - free access )
I have seen one phrase of professor Muhammad Yunus.
If to a poor woman in a poor village you giv a mobile…I loved
this man and its words, so a summer Sunday , I wrote to him…..

22. From my corrispondence……At 00:05 24/08/2009,
Dear Doctor Yunus,
i'm Livia bellina,medical doctor,pathologist in Lampedusa Island,....
i had a very full life,and now ,i wont to give my self to for others.
in my youth i'm make research,....and i work in the university ,as
teaching,and instructor,..now,with Prof Missoni, we wont advocate the free
use of this image transmission,and, if need,
theaching,the method .
All that we make is free,because,i think the medical and technology is a right
of humanity,
our work can be found online at
http://www.diagnosticpathology.org/content/4/1/19
The healt is a right ,but isn't for all.......
in attach i send a Professor Missoni's letter related to a commercial use of
variuos methods similar ,
i be at your beck and the call
thank for attention……
Yes ! I studied french……not english…;)

23. a great minds can see

24. After 2 days I received this answer….
mohamed yunus
A: Livia Bellina Cc: Imamus Sultan, Lamiya Morshed
August 26, 2009
Dear Dr. Bellina :
I am very much interested in your methods. We are now
focusing in building a healthcare system for the rural areas of
Bangladesh. Your methods will be very helpful to us.
Please let us know how take the next step.
Warm regards.
Yunus ……and I went to Bangladesh……

25. I remember still the great emotion that I had for Prof.Yunus
invitation . I believe that this emotion have been one the
biggest emotions of my life . I went to Bangladesh, and I
introduced also my son to Professor Yunus, an extraordinary
man . Several and several time He spent its time with me , also
with my son, playing and conversating in very friendly way.

26. In 2010 I went as volunteer in Bangladesh, upon
Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ invitation, teaching and applying
MobileDiagnosis, linking the health centers in rural areas of
Bangladesh to the headquarters in Dhaka.
I lived in rural centers (Tangail and Comilla). For several weeks,
I taught and worked with the students all day long, from early
morning to sunset. In Grameen Foundation's health centers, he
organized a “school “ of lowcost telepathology and basic
telemedicine, based only on the local minimal equipment and
available cellphones.

27. I have been part of
Grameen Family and
Yunus Center in
DhaKa
I experimented on the
ground my method
Professor Yunus
introduced me in
public way , at the
first SB day,during a
world connection

28. After that

29. I went on the field, sharing and teaching

35. Working together we obtained extraordinary results

36. We became member of WHO
Global Work Force Alliance

37. ! " # $%&' () # *" +*&%, *
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38. 2011 -WHO published MobileDiagnosis on the
Compendium of Innovative Technologies address to Global Health
2011 - Rockefeller published MobileDiagnosis in their site as
“Philanthropic project”
2011 - GHWF Alliance admitted MobileDiagnosis as members
2011 -M-Health Alliance member
2011 - Ashoka Global health Innovator group and
one of 11 innovator of 2011
2012 - The Rotary Inner Wheel, Palermo Centro, jointed with
University Academic Board Conferred to Livia the
award “Premio Rosario La Duca, a life for Palermo”, for
Humanitarian commitment and work made with MobileDiagnosis on
the fields in Developing Countries

39. How it work
Actors in local actions
Education of the
local work-forces
Remote Diagnostic Support + E-learning Educating, Connecting.

40. COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPACT
Thsimbulu-DRC- 2012 :improvement of laboratory quality and better
local diagnosis by local work-force education
Result 1 :reduction of the false negatives in parasitological examinations
from 55% to zero
Result 2:improvement of TB stain staining with reduction of false neg
Result 3 : introduction of the vaginal smears ( and in future the PAP
TEST)to prevent cancer of uterus neck in the youth women
http://www.slideshare.net/livia_bellina/mobile-diagnosis-in-tshimbulu-rdc-
2012
Thimbulu –DRC-2013 :Action to prevent death from anemia/malariain
the local population .
527 Checking of 527 malaria patients cases (October November 2013)
thick and thin slides - triple-blind reading
Management of malaria resistant cases : Introduction of the check- exams
before and after drugs ingestion, for testing the efficacy of the therapy , in
the resistant cases
65 Checking and immediate(real time) therapy provision for all of 65
malnourished children living in the malnourished center
All children was checked for :malaria/anemia/general conditions/fever/
dermatological lesions /epato-splenomegaly-all
received immediate diagnosis and immediate therapy
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107116750892549449944/albums/5954
327534405985025
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107116750892549449944/albums/5948
812210026901985

41. How it work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_751FZ7Ta_U

42. The flux of information
Rural , peripheral laboratory
send images by MMS
Web Platform
The images then are stored in
the web platform
Images can be visualized by
other consultants (nationals
and internationals experts)
for a third-opinion
An alert-sms call the
consultant
APPLICATIONS

43. Education

44. Thanks to the observation of easily and quickly learning by
illiterate subjects
(Dinajpur, Bangladesh 2011) and by vulnerable women
living in isolated and difficult contexts (Herat, Afghanistan,
2011) we started to study the psychological relationships
between m-phone use in teaching and learning mechanisms
This educative method is based on three elements plus
one:
1 )Interactive-creative two phase approach to the students.
2 )Interactive-creative lessons, based on logic , algorithms
and use of mobile.
3) On the job lessons and use of mobile phone as didactic
tool for practical learning.
M-phone impact on practical training: role of m-phone as part of the educative method
for training local health workers of rural areas of developing countries DOI
10.1007/s12553-013-0073-4

45. Using the Mobile as educational-interactive tool: a new,
unconventional, method.
This Method could be an useful tool in all the situations
where the students are fragile subjects and/or with learning
problems or communication difficulties.
This new method, casually born, is based on mobile use,
mental maps and interactive session during the lessons "on the
field”: a new method created day by day.
The psychological basis of these surprising results are the
subject of a scientific article (on course of application for
publishing).
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/tmj.2011.9976

46. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRok5QvO60

47. Mobile Diagnosis: Bridging Sociocultural Gaps and Empowering Women
Livia Bellina and Eduardo Missoni Telemedicine and e-Health. November 2011, Vol. 17, No. 9: 750-750
DOI : 10.1089/tmj.2011.9976

48. The new method was showing a strong power in educating the low
skill health workers and also the non educated people.
A new way for comunicating

49. THE PROJECT : TO IMPROVE THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES BY EDUCATING
AND CONNECTING THE PEOPLE
Analysis Development The social and economic
impact

50. In the World
•The people living in rural setting of developing countries ,
after having studied , goes away, for look a
better life out of their country
•A billion people never see
a health worker in their
whole lives *
* GHWFA

51. Health workers are the heart and soul of health
systems. And yet, the world is faced with a chronic
shortage - an estimated 4.2 million health workers are
needed to bridge the gap, with 1.5 million needed in
Africa alone. The critical shortage is recognized as one
of the most fundamental constraints to achieving
progress on health and reaching health and
development goals. GHWFA
And there is where MobileDiagnosis makes a great difference
by adding a successful technological innovation to fill the gap
left by the shortage of health workers and/or by difficult access
to clinical laboratories for diagnosis.

52. Evolution

53. Developing Projects: Innovation by appropriate , frugal
technology.
Developing models for studying mechanisms that characterize the socio-cultural
dynamics of different rural communities and their needs
perceived, thanks to socio-anthropological surveys studying on local
behaviour and traditions, for improve at the best the local wellness
respecting the local life, traditions, uses.

54. Developing Projects:
m-education and distance learning
Distance learning through an "open access open-door" web site
(work in progress) based on an "interactive course" .This
“evolution” of project , thanks to creation of a network of
education centres linked together and connected to the web
platform of MobileDiagnosis® Network for sharing of data,
images and texts for education, and an open-source training
centre, with an images library and an interactive school. will be
possible access to this "school" from the educational page of
MobileDiagnosis® website
Expand the area of action
Remote support for a better diagnosis

55. Developing Projects: Innovation by appropriate , frugal
technology: MD RURAL CLINIC
Design and development of innovative, unconventional prototypes of
modular health and education centers, thanks to research of new solutions,
focused on environment respect and autonomous generation of clean energy,
sanitized water, and safe waste elimination in a perspective of sustainability
for the complete integration in the local scenario.

56. FUTURE PROJECT : IMAGES DETECTION
Thanks to a personal images database work to create an App for m-phone
for the parasyte images identification

57. MOBILEDIAGNOSIS MODEL
FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT