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Cited by 223Mobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsICT in Developing CommunitiesMobile Learning in Education

The Case for mHealth in Developing Countries

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Mechael, Patricia N.·2009·Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization
DOI 10.1162/itgg.2009.4.1.103
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Abstract

While the health community debates whether a specialized field of "mHealth" exists and how to define it, most people will agree that individuals around the world are using mobile technologies to access health services and information and that health professionals are formally and informally integrating mobile technologies into public health and clinical activities.As mobile phones and other mobile devices become part of everyday life, people become better equipped to respond to emergencies, consult with peers and health professionals about health issues as they arise, and access health services that are increasingly being delivered through mobile phone based systems, such as remote patient monitoring.In developing countries, people frequently acquire mobile phones just in case of emergencies, including a taxi driver I interviewed in Upper Egypt in 2002, who shared the following experience with me:There had been an accident on the highway to Samalut: … a taxi .. turned upside down.That was two years ago, and the news had spread, and on that day I was working, and I returned late.I found my wife in a hysterical condition and when I asked her what was wrong, she told me that she didn't know my whereabouts, and she heard that there was a taxi accident, and that I was late.So at that moment I felt that the mobile would be useful.(Mechael, 2006, p. 126) The term mobile health or mHealth, also written as m-health, describes the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies as they are integrated within increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems (Istepanian & Lacal, 2003).It can also be described as "mobile computing, medical sensor, and communications technologies for health care" (Istepanian, 2004).While the term is familiar to those in biomedicine and informatics, it is only now being clearly defined and frameworks are being developed for the broader medical and public health communities, as well as for the general public and stakeholders in the mobile phone industry.

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  • mHealth can support the performance of health care workers by disseminating clinical updates, learning materials, and reminders, particularly in underserved rural locations in low- and middle-income countries where community health workers deliver integrated community case management to children with diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria.

    “mHealth can also support the performance of health care workers by the dissemination of clinical updates, learning materials, and reminders [3], particularly in underserved rural locations in low- and middle-income countries where community health workers deliver ICCM to children sick with diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria [3,4].”

    From Mobile Health (mHealth) Approaches and Lessons for Increased Performance and Retention of Community Health Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review (2013) · cites this paper as [3]

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  • For mHealth success, cooperation between local communities and regional and national health information systems is essential.

    “For mHealth success, cooperation between local communities and regional and national health information systems is essential [3,58,59].”

    From Mobile Health (mHealth) Approaches and Lessons for Increased Performance and Retention of Community Health Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review (2013) · cites this paper as [3]

    In “mHEALTH WITHIN mSERVICES” (page unavailable), the paper recommends partnerships for scaling mHealth and describes linking household and clinic data to a district health information system. This supports connecting local activity with wider systems, but the paper says such partnerships will “likely contribute” to scalability; it does not establish cooperation between local communities and regional and national systems as essential for success. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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1 of the 14 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Fuscaldo, D. (December 15, 2004). "Soon, Cellphones Will Monitor the Vital Signs of the Chronically Ill." The Wall Street Journal On-line. http://www.wirelesslifesciences.org/pdfs/WSJ1_12152004_Cellphones.pdf
  2. Lacal, J. (2003). "Cell Phones and telemedicine." Paper presented at the Fifth International Workshop on Enterprise Networking and Computing in the Healthcare Industry, Santa Monica, California.
  3. Mechael, P. (2006). Exploring Health-related Uses of Mobile Phones: An Egyptian Case Study. PhD Thesis completed at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
  4. Mechael, P. and D. Sloninsky (2008). "Towards the Development of an mHealth Strategy: A Literature Review." Working paper. New York: Earth Institute at Columbia University.

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Authors
Mechael, P. N.
Affiliations
Columbia University (US)
Corresponding author
Mechael, Patricia N.
ORCID
Mechael, Patricia N.
Venue
Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization
Publisher
MIT Press - Journals
Published
2009-01
Volume
4
Issue
1
Pages
103-118
ISSN
  • 1558-2477 (ISSN-L)
  • 1558-2485
DOI
10.1162/itgg.2009.4.1.103
OpenAlex
W2049126189
Cited by
223
References
14
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 16
FWCI
20.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Innovations Technology Governance Globalization (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Mobile Learning in Education
Keywords
mobile health, mobile devices, developing countries, remote patient monitoring, health information access, emergency communication

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