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mHealth

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"mHealth have shown to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of African medical systems through patient tracking and reporting, as well as extend critically needed health services to underserved areas, found both in rural and urban African communities.

" Medscape Access. mHealth for Africa: What can mobiles do for NCDs? In the past five years, Africa’s mobile phone market has rapidly expanded to become larger than either the European Union or the United States and this growth is set to carry on rising. One way global health practitioners have been maximising on this growth is through mHealth. Africa is home to more mHealth projects than anywhere else in the world, according to a recent report by the mHealth Alliance.

The majority of these projects focus on neo natal health and communicable diseases. So, how can these projects be adapted to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and how can we be sure of their effectiveness on the ground? GACD’s Eshe Jackson Nyakisana reports. Cheap SIM cards sold in Uganda. Photo courtesy of Ken Banks, kiwanja.net According to the World Health Organisation, 65% of deaths in 2020 will be due to non-communicable diseases and 27% of those deaths will be concentrated in Africa.

Monitoring and Evaluation What can you do? Mobile technology and mHealth: The newest frontline in health care innovation in Africa. Applications & Platforms. Mobile Data Toolkit - A database of services and software used in international development and social change work for data collection. Only a handful of mobile platforms are currently reviewed, but more are being added.

MORE Online Selection Assistant, NOMAD - NOMAD offers a free Online Selection Assistant to connect your organization or project with one of 24 mobile data collection solutions. NOMAD also includes a secondment service comprised of experienced field personnel who are ready to deploy to train your organization how to use mobile data collection technology or to support in the collection of such data.

OpenMRS - A community-developed, open-source, enterprise electronic medical record system platform. Magpi (formerly EpiSurveyor) - A free mobile phone and Web-based data collection system for international development and global health. FrontlineSMS - Free, open-source software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a central communications hub. Assessment of SMS-based applications in emerging countries | mHealth Africa.

A recent study has been released by a team of scientists from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute titled “Short message service (SMS) applications for disease prevention in developing countries.” The paper is of clear interest for mHealth Africa since several SMS-based applications have been presented in our posts “10 best tools to boost mHealth initiatives in Africa” Part 1 & Part 2. Here are some of the points revealed in the paper written by Carole Déglise, L. Suzanne Suggs and Peter Odermatt. Objective of the paper The aim of this review was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of SMS interventions for disease prevention in developing countries and provide recommendations for future work.

The study is based on a systematic search of peer-reviewed and gray literature in English, French, and German before May 2011 that describe SMS applications for disease prevention in developing countries. Description of SMS-based applications Showing 1 to 5 of 5 entries Conclusion. Aren’t Medicine and Water More Important Than Telecommunications? ICT4D is a small, but growing community working on the massive challenge of bringing Internet connectivity to the world. As such, effectively conveying the meaning and opportunity of our work to people other than the few that already understand it, be it government officials, investors, grantmakers, or even telecommunications operators, becomes a massively important task. My name is Alex Blum and I am the Founder and CEO of Rugged Communications, a company that designs and deploys ICT4D solutions. In my experience, I’ve repeatedly come across the same few questions.

We need to answer them articulately if we hope to attract others to our mission. Here are five questions I encounter most frequently and ways I’ve learned to respond: Question: “Why Does Telecommunications Matter?” Telecommunications is about connectivity. Question: “Aren’t Water, Latrines, and Medicine More Important?” Undoubtedly, sanitary living conditions, sustenance, and basic health services are human needs and rights.

Three stories of how digital payments are changing healthcare delivery | Global Development Professionals Network. According to a 2013 USAid report, public health schemes rely heavily on cash: to make payments for medical services, to pay health workers, to buy drugs at pharmacies. Yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that digital payments in rural, remote areas settings are quicker, easier, and safer. The likelihood of fraud drops as fewer hands are needed to transfer the money. And the transaction costs decline, making it cheaper for providers to reach rural populations. This translates into scale - a sought after goal in most public health projects - enabling organisations to cover larger areas with their services.

A digital trail also allows for easy data collection, auditing, and transparency, all of which is essential in health programming. Ultimately, USAid suggests programmes could create sustainable business models, becoming less dependant on donor funding and build relationships with new corporate partners. Helping fistula patients access transport costs Read more stories like this: Using mobile technology to improve maternal health and fight Ebola: A case study of mobile innovation in Nigeria. Today, many emerging countries struggle to provide basic health care to their citizens. And the lack of quality maternal, infant and child care has a devastating impact in these areas. Yet medical practitioners, government agencies, and private industry are beginning to learn how mobile technology can be harnessed to develop and inspire solutions to aid the health of people and nations. In this report, Darrell West examines mHealth applications in Africa.

In particular, he focuses on Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and takes a brief look at other innovations occurring in the North African country of Morocco. The report covers examples and case studies of how mobile innovations are working to improve health care in Africa. Mobile innovation offers an opportunity to strengthen the capacity of clinicians and increase the quality of timeliness of delivery of critical maternal and child health services.

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