A reflective analysis of the north-south research collaboration in mobile health projects

Abstract

Healthcare services provision in rural areas of developing regions is often inefficient due to limited resources and poor infrastructure. The proliferation of mobile phone use in rural communities provides an opportunity to implement mobile health (mHealth) technologies that has proven to improve healthcare provision in various regions around the globe. Mobenzi project is one example of an mHealth initiative that is being piloted in several provinces in South Africa. This paper presents a reflective account of the authors lived experience on the northern (represented by Swedish partners) and southern (represented by South African team) hemispheres research collaboration on mHealth in order to illuminate possibilities in the collaborative spaces for effective mHealth research. A structured reflexivity that included: what is, experiences associated with the current situation, lessons learned and so what (implications) was utilised in order to assess and evaluate the north-south research collaborations. The basis of the experiences is on an on-going investigation into the effectiveness of the Mobenzi project currently being undertaken by the authors and their Swedish partners in the Northwest Province of South Africa with funding from SAMRC and Swedish FORTE.