A South African national who invented an innovative talking books on healthcare, which helps illiterate people to get proper information on clinical trials, has won high praise from the World Medical Association (WMA). Zane Wilson, founder of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) and the creator of the Speaking Books, was honored by Dr. Edward Hill, president of World Medical association in Delhi India, during the association general assembly.

"The African Speaking Book on Clinical Trials has received a wide and exclusively positive reception. This encouraged us all to work on further versions of the book. Today we are proud to present you with the Indian version of the Speaking Book on Clinical Trials which was developed into the local language jointly by the World Medical Association and the Indian Medical Association," Dr Edward Hill, president of the WMA told a packed auditorium in India.

The WMA also witnessed the launch of two other talking books in the Hindi and Telugu languages. Dr Soeren Rasmussen, from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals said he was convinced that as in South Africa the speaking books could help, especially illiterate people, to get proper information on clinical research trials, which would help them to make informed decisions.

The speaking books are a major communication breakthrough in health care literacy for communities most at risk and least served. The innovator Wilson, told the WMA, that from his two initial books in South Africa on mental health, the speaking books have now been developed into 35 different titles on various topics such as depression, living with HIV, malaria, TB and Rotavirus among others. The books have been translated into 14 different languages including French, Mandarin, Swahili, Zulu and now Hindi.

According to Wilson, each book reaches a minimum of 27 people within the community and is used by trainers to help communities make the right decisions with their health care. In addition, the books come with soundtracks which are battery operated and the 16 messages in each book can be played again and again until they are understood by the patient.

From a small start in South Africa, the speaking books have now become recognized as a vital solution to getting simple health care education messages to disadvantaged and illiterate communities. Currently similar talking books are being produced for the Comoros, Ethiopia, Swaziland, and Namibia. VOC (Hassan Isilow)