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.