MedAfrica.org ^[1], a startup set to launch October 1, wants to change the way health information is shared in developing countries. Company founders Steve Mutinda and Mbugua Njihia want to build a profitable business that also serves a social good by delivering medical information to mobile phones.

“The platform as it is right now is a mobile application that has things like doctors listings, it has hospital information, you can have symptom checkers,” Mutinda told reporters. “And then I can see specialists, who I can call and get treatment.”

The co-founders have said that they hope to achieve 200 million downloads. The company’s first app will be called MedKenya. According to 2006 data, there were about 14 doctors per 100,000 people in Kenya.

Health advocates in African countries have been working with cell phones in recent years as a way to get medical information to remote areas. Microsoft Research has given grant money to researchers on the African continent to develop mobile solutions to healthcare issues.

Read more at VentureBeat ^[2].