Mobile Technologies for Health (mHealth)

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One of K4Health’s growing practice areas is mHealth—the use of mobile technologies (including phones, tablets, and netbooks) to improve public health.

mHealth is of particular interest in developing countries, where widespread mobile networks and access to devices are connecting people like never before, leap-frogging older technologies to dramatically improve information flow, data collection, social and behavior change, and emergency response.

For example, SMS/text-based campaigns can be an effective way to share health information with people who lack reliable internet access.

There are now more than 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally, making it the most pervasive information-sharing platform ever. Recognizing the potential of mobile technologies and approaches to transform knowledge-sharing, K4Health is an active participant across the mHealth value chain. Our activities include:

  • Spearheading an interdisciplinary mHealth Working Group to share best and emerging practices;
  • Creating and managing the mHealth Toolkit, which provides access to key mHealth resources;
  • Publishing a special supplement to the K4Health Newsletter: Focus on mHealth;
  • Collaborating with leading organizations on how best to monitor and evaluate mHealth programs;
  • Implementing or supporting mHealth activities within our field-based programs, where appropriate; and
  • Developing mobile applications and interfaces to make K4Health's content available on mobile devices.

Learn more: Focus on mHealth Fact Sheet (1MB .pdf) and other mHealth-related content appears below.

  • Blog post
    May 10, 2013

    Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative: Access on the frontlines

    Originally appearing on the Global Health Knowledge Collaborative (GHKC) Blog, this post by Basil Safi describes a pilot eHealth program in Bangladesh that equips community health workers with Netbooks loaded with behavior change communication materials rigorously vetted by the Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) and the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOFW). Basil discussed the pilot project at the Global Health Knowledge Management Share Fair last month, and it was recently highlighted on USAID's Impact Blog in a post by Monica Bautista and Peggy D'Adamo.

    A Family Planning Provider in Bangladesh

    BKMI will help providers access the latest resources to better counsel their clients on family planning (FP), maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and nutrition. 

    © 2011 Cassandra Mickish/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare

    Under the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, the Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiativeworks to build the capacity of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) in Bangladesh to improve knowledge management and coordinate behavior change communication (BCC) in the country.  BKMI collaborated with MOHFW to establish the gold standard of BCC for health, population and nutrition and make the best tools and resources available in an offline, digital format to health workers in the field.  BKMI is using a rigorous monitoring and evaluation plan to assess the impact of this pilot project.  

    During the Global Health Knowledge Collaborative's Knowledge Management Share Fair on April 16th in Washington, DC, I explained that as part of the initiative, 300 community-level health workers in the Sylhet and Chittagong districts will receive netbooks pre-loaded with HPN BCC eToolkits and eight eLearning courses to use when counseling clients about family planning (FP), maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and nutrition. The digital resources will also be made available on computers in 42 health complexes, 12 clinics and two Agriculture Information Communication Centers.  By the end of the pilot, a robust evaluation will look for changes in field workers’ knowledge and BCC skills, as well as their clients’ intention to adopt healthier behaviors around FP, MNCH and nutrition.

    Global Health Knowledge Collaborative (GHKC)
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  • Blog post
    April 02, 2013

    A New Primer on Sustaining mHealth Interventions

    While mobile technology has attracted widespread recognition of the enormous opportunity for its application to development challenges, few m-enabled solutions are commercially viable.  New business models in mhealth are needed that take into account the constraints of a country’s health system and a community’s purchasing power.

    SHOPS co-funded a study conducted by the Monitor Group which mapped  430 inclusive businesses (see box for definition) from nine African countries.  The purpose of the study was to identify successful business models that enable enterprises to engage profitably at scale with base of the pyramid (BOP) populations.  In the study, twelve m-enabled businesses were identified, but none were profitable other than mPesa, which offers financial transactions through mobile phones.  A new primer released last week entitled m-Enabled Inclusive Business Models: Application for Health, examines enterprises leveraging mobile technology with considerable potential to contribute to poverty alleviation.

    mHealth
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  • Blog post
    March 14, 2013

    Scale-up and Sustainability of mHealth Programs: Online Discussion Forum March 18-22

    Originally published on March 14, 2013 on the GSMA mHealth Blog, K4Health's Laura Raney discusses the upcoming online discussion forum hosted jointly by the mHealth Working Group and the mHealth Alliance.

    Co-hosted by the mHealth Working Group and the mHealth Alliance, this online discussion forum aims to gather input from the global community about their opinions on and experience with scale-up and sustainability. The discussion follows the recent Skoll World Forum debate series on Moving beyond Pilotitis.

    M4RH Image

    Photo courtesy of the M4RH Program.

    Experts representing a variety of organizations will address the following questions:

    • What does it mean to design for scale and sustainability?
    • Does designing for scale and sustainability alleviate ‘pilotitis’?
    • What are the drawbacks of designing for scale and sustainability from the beginning (particularly for new mHealth programs)?
    Read more
  • Event
    September 23, 2013 (All day) to September 24, 2013 (All day)
    London, England

    6th World Congress on Social Media, Mobile Apps, and Internet/Web 2.0 in Medicine, Health, and Biomedical Research

    A unique mix of traditional academic/research, practice and business presentations, keynote presentations, and panel discussions to discuss emerging technologies in international health and medicine, with an emphasis on Internet-based, social media, and mobile technologies. Collaborators: Oxford University and eHealth Unit at the University College London.

  • Blog post
    February 11, 2013

    Are Technology and Prudent Knowledge Management Answers to Saving a Health System?

    Perspective of a student intern in Bangladesh.

    Bangladesh is a land of stark differences. Deep divides between socio-economic classes and, more importantly, even deeper divides in access to quality healthcare exist between rural and urban areas. Additionally, an inequity which might be less obvious but possibly of crucial importance, is the difference in performance between Frontline Health Workers (FHWs) in rural versus peri-urban and urban areas.

    Populations are less densely populated in rural areas and even the lowest level government FHWs tend to be much better compensated on average than the populations they serve. Which is why, it is not uncommon to find FHWs who live quite far from the areas they serve in the interest of better schools for their children or more amenities such as electricity to enjoy.

    Nutrition
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  • Blog post
    January 28, 2013

    Coordinating and Integrating eHealth Initiatives

    Throughout the Global Maternal Health Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, presentations on mHealth and broader eHealth were numerous. As a person working on an eHealth initiative and concerned with knowledge management, I have to wonder how we’re ever going to coordinate and integrate all of this work not just within countries but globally. Or are the needs and lessons for eHealth too context specific?

    It is important that we continue to explore new avenues for partnering and forums for sharing important lessons with each other. As part of those partnerships, ministries and government need to be in the driver’s seat for sustainability. The Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) understands this well and is working hand in hand with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to implement their eHealth initiative.

    Read more
  • Blog post
    January 25, 2013

    Using eHealth to Improve Health Delivery in Bangladesh

    Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous countries, has some of the worst maternal health indicators. One of the contributing factors to poor maternal health is the lack of life-saving information on family planning and reproductive health, maternal nutrition, safe delivery, antenatal care, and postnatal care. The government-supported community-based frontline health workers (CHWs) that provide counseling to mothers often lack accurate and up-to-date information around these topics themselves. However there are reasons to be optimistic! The government’s commitment to improving maternal health, and its goal of a Digital Bangladesh, provides a unique opportunity to explore solutions through innovative technology in communities.

    The Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) is improving access to and use of essential maternal health information in Bangladesh communities through simple and cost-effective eHealth solutions. Working closely with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), BKMI has developed an easy to use eToolkit, or digital library, and eight interactive eLearning course videos for a low-literacy audience. The eToolkit contains well-organized and cross-cutting behavior change communication (BCC) health resources vetted by technical experts and CHWs, for use with community clients. The eLearning courses are designed to supplement health worker trainings. They cover these maternal health topics, and also include interpersonal communication and counseling, and integrated messaging.

    Toolkits
    eLearning
    Maternal and Newborn Health
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  • Blog post
    January 14, 2013

    Announcing a special supplement to the K4Health Newsletter: Focus on mHealth

    K4Health is proud to announce a special supplement to the monthly K4Health Newsletter: Focus on mHealth.

    At last month’s mHealth Summit, the Global Health Track was launched, accompanying Business, Healthcare Delivery, Policy, Research, and Technology as key themes in mobile health. K4Health was part of the 16-member committee tapped to develop an agenda featuring efforts to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.

    Now that the Summit is over, we want to continue the conversation about mHealth in international development. K4Health brings together leaders in mHealth via the mHealth Working Group and has aggregated the latest mHealth knowledge on the mHealth Toolkit. Now we want to share that knowledge with you.

    K4Health Newsletter
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  • Blog post
    December 21, 2012

    Telemedicine and mHealth

    As a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Zambia from 2003-2005, I relied on word of mouth, bush notes or a bike ride to the district capital to try the unreliable landlines to communicate.  In 2006, I got news that a cell tower was raised in the district capital and people there had a new option for communication. Back in the U.S., I quickly found out I had missed most of web 2.0’s opening act and rushed to set up accounts on Friendster and MySpace. I bought a feature phone and read about the Blackberry craze.

    Fast-forward to 2010 when I was delivering HIV capacity building assistance for a U.S. non-profit. I traveled to rural parts of the U.S. including places like Hattiesburg, MS, and Lafayette, LA. In Alpine, CA, I worked with Mountain Health and Community Services in rural eastern San Diego and learned about their participation in a telemedicine pilot project: Cisco’s HealthPresence.

    mHealth Summit
    Telemedicine
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  • Blog post
    December 20, 2012

    4 Innovations in Maternal and Child Health

    Many innovations are being tested around the world to decrease the cost of providing maternal and child health (MCH) services while increasing access to essential information and care. As I read about the innovative approaches described in Soma Ghoshal’s blog post, I couldn’t help but reflect on how vastly technology has improved my own access to MCH information and services as a new mother here in the U.S. These solutions promise to deliver knowledge and care to mothers in need in developing countries. Knowing how many mothers in the U.S., particularly in inner cities and rural areas, also lack access to prenatal, postpartum, and well-child information and services, I hope that creative, evidence-based approaches such as these take hold not only in developing countries but also here in the U.S.

    This blog post was written by Soma Ghoshal of the Center for Health Market Innovations.

    In its newly published Highlights 2012, the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) identifies a number of new trends in solutions that aim to improve the quality, affordability and accessibility of healthcare for the poorest and most vulnerable. These new approaches are being pioneered by social enterprises, nonprofits and governments to better organize, finance, and regulate the delivery of private-sector healthcare.

    CHMI focuses on maternal and child health as many private organizations are utilizing innovative approaches to improve maternal and child health outcomes.  As the Millennium Development Goals deadline looms, maternal mortality rates still overwhelm many developing countries. Many organizations are combating maternal and child mortality rates, however, through the implementation of new technologies and practicing emerging business models.

    Read more

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