While working on a mhealth project that expanded across three countries, I was tasked with researching both the public health and mobile sectors in each country. Having worked on a number of strategic plans to implement mhealth, I knew what technology was being used in the field and the challenges that mobile technology can solve. [...]

In the news and blogosphere on ICT4D, there is a heavy focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, mostly because mobile phones have exploded across the continent. But we have missed many of the innovations that are going on in Latin American and the Caribbean. In an effort to reach back to the history of mHealth, I was [...]

Ethiopia is at a pivotal moment in its efforts to improve the health status of its people and move the country into a new phase of social and economic development. The country’s massive Health Extension Program (HEP) program has placed over 34,000 community health workers in 14,000 health posts in less than 8 years. Now, [...]

mHealth is by no means the magic bullet (I believe there is no magic in international development; every situation is so different and complex for one solution). But it could help to improve the public health workforce or women’s health in developing countries. In order to determine this, there needs to be further field research. [...]

During New America’s Mobile Disconnect talk on February 9th, Katrin Verclas, Co-Founder and Editor of MobileActive.org, brought up an interesting question about data privacy in mhealth – what is being done to protect patient data in mhealth projects in developing countries? “If you are gathering sensitive health data over completely clear text and insecure SMS, [...]

As the desire to utilize mobile phones in international health projects has increased in the last few years, organizations continually ask a similar question, “We want to use mobile phones. Now what?” But the decision to introduce or start a mhealth project needs to come after answering many questions before “now what?” especially when dealing [...]

The mHealth Alliance recently released their second white paper on the interconnection between mobile health and mobile finance services. Entitled “Advancing the Dialogue on Mobile Finance and Mobile Health: Country Case Studies” and co-authored by Menekse Gencer, Founder of mPay Connect, and Jody Ranck, the report focused on four separate countries  with varying degrees of [...]

In an ode to International Women’s Day, we wanted to review a few of the mobile health projects and programs directly focused on women’s health issues. mHealth has a great variance in the type of applications used to promote and assist in women’s health. This ranges from sending health information about pregnancy via basic text [...]

“If you want to do M4D in Uganda, you have to be willing to coordinate.” This is the underlying message of UNICEF Technology Specialist David McCann’s blog, “A Ugandan mHealth Moratorium Is a Good Thing.” According to McCann, proliferation of Big Aid-supported mobile interventions, coupled with a severe lack of integration and collaboration, has hindered Uganda’s [...]

As you may have heard Women Deliver is celebrating the progress made on behalf of girls and women worldwide. Building on its 2011 competition, which featured inspiring people who have delivered for girls and women, this year they have chosen to spotlight top ideas and solutions in the following five categories: •    Technologies and Innovations [...]