But could a mobile phone app be the answer? Using a technique known as 'verbal autopsy', field workers visit relatives to ask them about the circumstances of a family death. BBC News reports that by collecting the information digitally from currently hard-to-reach places, it has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of global health. In Malawi, for example, any death that occurs outside a medical facility is not recorded, according to the report. It notes Dr Carina King, a fellow at University College London, is overseeing the implementation of the mobile phone autopsies in the Malawian district of Mchinji. 'We found everyone surprisingly open, and I think they find the phone quite an interesting thing when we go for interviews,' she is quoted in the report as saying. Full BBC News report