Cell phones not only allow people to text message, take photos and navigate through traffic, they are now making strides in global health as well.

Walter H. Curioso, a physician and faculty member at the UW School of Medicine, recently worked with colleagues to combine cell phone use and the Internet to create a surveillance system in three cities in Peru. The goal was to monitor the side effects of a medication given to female sex workers, which included headaches, loss of appetite and stomach pain.

According to a press release issued by the UW, the women would send the medical information in text messages. This was more efficient and less expensive than filling out paperwork, which could take days or weeks to process.

Curioso, a native of Peru, said that cell phones are ideal tools for a mobile team; very few other options were considered.

"Cell phones in Peru are popular and cheap right now," Curioso said. "They also don't stick out in the field because from an outside observer, it looks like a health worker is just making a phone call."

The information collected was stored in an online database, where it could immediately be accessed worldwide and exported over a secure Internet connection. The messages alerted key personnel to severe symptoms such as vomiting.

"With more clinical trials involving evaluations of new drugs or vaccines," Curioso said, "monitoring for early detection of adverse events is essential."

The company Voxiva provided technical support for the team, and the project was funded by Amauta Health Informatics Research, a grant offered by Fogarty International Center. According to the center's Web site, more than $64 million was spent in global health research last year.

Curioso said he will continue his study of HIV and AIDS, which he conisders global problems.

He is building a health informatics program at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, where he will work as a research professor and look at using different communication technologies such as the Internet, personal digital assistants, tablet computers and cell phones.

"As the price of technology decreases, some of these tools have become more ubiquitous even in resource-constrained settings," Curioso said. "Their uses are just beginning to be explored in depth."