Throughout history, technological advances have been propelling businesses forward and giving them new and interesting ways to market their brands and reach more people. Here at CallFire, we love partnering with businesses and providing them with affordable high-tech mass communication tools to help them build customer engagement and increase their bottom line.
But, in addition to helping businesses, one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do is being able to promote social change and foster culture-shifting initiatives with our technology. Our solutions have a far-reaching effect, and they can speed up communication efforts for situations where communication is imperative to saving lives.
How Technology Can Save Lives
Changing the world is a tough job, one that an organization like OneWorld Health takes on daily. OneWorld Health is a non-profit pharmaceutical company funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its mission is to facilitate infectious disease cures by analyzing the safety and effectiveness of investigational medicines.
To facilitate research, the organization contacted QuesGen Systems, Inc to assemble and quickly analyze large amounts of data from developing nations. The data included research from hundreds of participants, and gathering it is a time-consuming process typically done by sending paper questionnaires or surveys via text messages.
Founder & CEO of QuesGen Systems, Mike Jarrett, in response to this challenge, decided to adopt the mobile technology text-to-voice solution, interactive voice response. Because the questionnaire included complex prompts such as dosage amount and last date tested, Jarrett needed a flexible solution like interactive voice response to make it easy for participants to respond and give accurate answers. According to Jarrett, “Cell phones are ubiquitous, making it easier for participants to press buttons on their cell phone than to try to answer a survey online.”
Benefits of Using Interactive Voice Response
Using interactive voice response, OneWorld Health can access and review the data and alter the questionnaire. The organization can also receive real-time data, which is crucial during fast-acting scenarios like outbreaks where reporting on actual numbers is critical. In these situations, it’s essential for coordinators to track the number of positive cases in one area to assess the threat and quickly make a decision regarding protective safety measures. With interactive voice response, all parties have access to up-to-date data, which boosts response time and provides a more efficient data-gathering process.
QuesGen Systems hopes to continue to work with OneWorld Health to facilitate additional data gathering for more illnesses to cast a wider net in the infectious diseases arena.
Mass communication has a global appeal and it continues to be at the forefront of technological advances in the business sector as well as the social climate. If you would like to find out how interactive voice response can help your business or organization, sign up for free here. We look forward to partnering with you to bring effective change in the arena in which you exert influence.