Engaging Patients through Mobile Phones: Demonstrator Services, Success Factors, and Future Opportunities in Low and Middle-income Countries (original) (raw)
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Mobile Health, Developing Countries
The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication., 2023
Mobile health (mHealth, m-health) technologies are poised to transform healthcare service delivery and self-care in low-resource environments of developing countries. Originally conceived of as a range of mobile, sensor, and wireless technologies for healthcare delivery, these technologies improved information exchange and communication services in countries encumbered by limited medical infrastructure, shortage of trained personnel, and high incidence of communicable diseases. In the introductory period, limitations to telecommunication access for the general population meant that mHealth interventions were primarily implemented by the formal healthcare system as an organizational-level solution. In developing countries, mobile devices and Internet-enabled systems enable the transfer of high-quality medical information and resources between areas with differential healthcare resources. Typically, mobile phone-based communications enable frontline healthcare workers in remote areas to reach health professionals in urban areas, allowing for coordination amongst widely dispersed medical personnel, training for community healthcare workers, remote monitoring of programs, and dissemination of information to the community (Agarwal et al., 2015). However, the unprecedented growth and ubiquitous spread of mobile phone accessibility to most of the global population, accompanied by increased affordability, has addressed concerns related to the digital divide. By the end of the second decade of the millennium, mobile networks cover almost the entire global population, with 93% being able to access mobile broadband networks. The organic adoption of mobile devices and solutions by individuals has led to mHealth increasingly being viewed in terms of its potential as a consumer-level health management tool. The notion is that by using mHealth technologies, such as texts, apps, and wearables, people can conveniently collect, analyze, and share their own health information.
Mobile' Health Needs And Opportunities In Developing Countries
Health Affairs, 2010
Developing countries face steady growth in the prevalence of chronic diseases, along with a continued burden from communicable diseases. "Mobile" health, or m-health-the use of mobile technologies such as cellular phones to support public health and clinical care-offers promise in responding to both types of disease burdens. Mobile technologies are widely available and can play an important role in health care at the regional, community, and individual levels. We examine various m-health applications and define the risks and benefits of each. We find positive examples but little solid evaluation of clinical or economic performance, which highlights the need for such evaluation.
Mobile Health (mHealth) in the Developing World: Two Decades of Progress or Retrogression
Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth
Mobile healthcare, or mHealth, is one of the key pillars of information and communication technologies for healthcare that consists of telemedicine, telehealth, eHealth, and mHealth. In the past two decades, mobile health has become a transformative concept for healthcare delivery innovations on a global scale. The success was based on the market-driven strategies that utilised the advances in mobile communications, computing, and sensor technologies, especially in recent years. Those market-driven mobile health systems were also closely associated with the global proliferation of smartphones, and based on the correlated usage principle of the smartphone applications for healthcare and wellbeing. However, the global commercial success of the smartphone-based mHealth model was not widely translated into successful scaled-up and tangible healthcare benefits, especially in low- and-middle income countries, compared to the consumer mobile health markets. The numerous healthcare challeng...
2021
The advances in mobile technologies and applications are driving the transformation in health services delivery globally. Mobile phone penetration is increasing exponentially in low-and middle-income countries, hence using mobile phones for healthcare services could reach more people in resource-limited settings than the traditional forms of healthcare provision. The review presents recent literature on facilitators and barriers of implementing mHealth for disease screening and treatment support in low-and middle-income countries. We searched for relevant literature from the following electronic databases: MEDLINE; CINAHL with full text via EBSCOhost; Science Direct; PubMed; Google Scholar and Web of Science using the keywords for relevant studies. We searched for published studies from 2015 to August 2020 with no language limitations. A total of 721 articles identified, 125 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative synthesis. The review demonstrates relevant facilitators for the implementation of mHealth, which includes knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of stakeholders on the use of mHealth and the performance of mHealth for disease diagnosis in low and-middleincome countries. Barriers and challenges hindering the implementation of mHealth applications were also identified. We proposed a framework for improving the implementation of mHealth for disease screening and treatment support in low-and middle-income countries.
Can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries
Global Health, 2006
The ongoing policy debate about the value of communications technology in promoting development objectives is diverse. Some view computer/web/phone communications technology as insufficient to solve development problems while others view communications technology as assisting all sections of the population. This paper looks at evidence to support or refute the idea that fixed and mobile telephones is, or could be, an effective healthcare intervention in developing countries.
Mobile Health in the Developing World: Review of Literature and Lessons From a Case Study
IEEE Access
The mHealth trend, which uses mobile devices and associated technology for health interventions, offers unprecedented opportunity to transform the health services available to people across the globe. In particular, the mHealth transformation can be most disruptive in the developing countries, which is often characterized by a dysfunctional public health system. Despite this opportunity, the growth of mHealth in developing countries is rather slow and no existing studies have conducted an in-depth search to identify the reasons. We present a comprehensive report about the factors hindering the growth of mHealth in developing countries. Most importantly, we outline future strategies for making mHealth even more effective. We are also the first to conduct a case study on the public health system of Pakistan showing that mHealth can offer tremendous opportunities for a developing country with a severe scarcity of health infrastructure and resources. The findings of this paper will guide the development of policies and strategies for the sustainable adoption of mHealth not only in Pakistan but also for any developing country in general. INDEX TERMS mHealth, mobile health, developing countries, remote monitoring, clinical decision support systems, epidemic outbreaks, mHealth challenges, mHealth for Pakistan.
Mobile Health for the Developing World : Review , Prospects , and A Case Study
2016
Mobile Health (mHealth) is an emerging technology that has a tremendous potential to improve the public health across the globe. Mobile phones being the simplest and most affordable technology has fueled the rapid adoption and institutionalization of mHealth. This paper focuses on the developing countries as despite the tremendous potential mHealth has not been implemented in large scale and there is a lack of research explaining the cause. We present a comprehensive list of the challenges that are current roadblocks for successful implementation of mHealth in the developing countries. In particular, we present a case study of Pakistan—an large underdeveloped country in South Asia. We discuss the public health architecture of Pakistan and then consider how mHealth can be used to complement the public health services in Pakistan. Moreover, we present a number of future aspects that the implementation of mHelath is likely to encounter. This research is expected to guide the developmen...
Archives of disease in childhood, 2016
Mobile technology is very prevalent in Kenya-mobile phone penetration is at 88% and mobile data subscriptions form 99% of all internet subscriptions. While there is great potential for such ubiquitous technology to revolutionise access and quality of healthcare in low-resource settings, there have been few successes at scale. Implementations of electronic health (e-Health) and mobile health (m-Health) technologies in countries like Kenya are yet to tackle human resource constraints or the political, ethical and financial considerations of such technologies. We outline recent innovations that could improve access and quality while considering the costs of healthcare. One is an attempt to create a scalable clinical decision support system by engaging a global network of specialist doctors and reversing some of the damaging effects of medical brain drain. The other efficiently extracts digital information from paper-based records using low-cost and locally produced tools such as rubber...
Towards Mobile Technology Utilization to Cure Primary Healthcare Ills
cirn.infotech.monash.edu.au
Primary healthcare may, for millions of health consumers world-wide, be the entry point to the national health system. The delivery of these essential health services relies on the skills base of healthcare professionals. Quality healthcare delivery is severely constrained in under-resourced areas where the majority of the population is dependent on primary healthcare services. The lack of accurate, reliable and timely health information provides a further challenge to deliver these services to the under-privileged. The main aim of this research is to improve the quality of primary healthcare delivery to under-resourced areas in emerging economies via advanced data collection at the point of care. More specifically, the problem will be addressed at the "grass roots" level and aims to increase access, availability and affordability of primary healthcare services to the people in these communities. Increased access to quality health data will enable the healthcare providers to make informed decisions on the management of the health of patients suffering from chronic disease such as hypertension and HIV/AIDS. The research proposes the use of mobile applications by community health workers to collect clinical data of chronically ill patients to populate an existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) system at a nearby primary healthcare facility. If this is not addressed the patients and healthcare providers will fail to benefit from information and communication technologies. A preliminary study to determine user attitudes towards the use and adoption of mobile technologies in healthcare was initially performed in a rural community of Bushbuckridge, South Africa where the proposed prototype will be tested. The results from the study show a favourable tendency towards adoption of mobile technologies in healthcare. During focus group discussions, the community members indicated that it will be beneficial to provide and receive health related contents via mobile phones.
Mobile-health technology: Can it Strengthen and improve
2014
The use of mobile-health (m-health) technology in public health is rapidly growing in developing countries. Objective: The objective of this study was to critically analyze the role and incorporation of m-health into public health systems of developing countries. Materials and Methods: A systematic review of related studies in the literature published in the last 10 years on key search word "m-health role in developing countries" was conducted using abstracting databases such as PubMed, World Health Organization, Cochrane, Google scholar and Bio-med Central. m-health studies on impact, effectiveness and evaluation of m-health in public health were the three main criteria's taken for inclusion and studies on m-health in developed world as well data from thesis/dissertation were excluded in this review. This study is unique in methodology as similar kind of studies with this type of method and focus has not been carried out previously in the literature. Results and Discussion: From 23 articles, which fi nally met the inclusion criteria it was found that, a variety of m-health applications and m-health strategies are available in the mobile phone market of developing countries; however, lack of appropriate governmental regulation and oversight from health-care authorities are impacting the results in terms of costs, benefi ts and utility of these applications. Conclusions: m-health technology has the potential to impact greater health-care access to larger segments of rural populations and an improved capacity to meet the demand in developing countries as seen from Indian strategies, provided it is also intelligently used for improving health-care of people in developing countries.