Abstract
This new framework lays out 12 common mHealth applications used as health systems strengthening innovations across the reproductive health continuum.
Highlights
The rapid proliferation of mHealth projects—albeit mainly pilot efforts—has generated considerable enthusiasm among governments, donors, and implementers of health programs.[1]
Some elements of a framework for evaluating health systems performance by relating the goals of the health system to its essential functions have been proposed previously, which we believe can serve as a model for articulating and justifying mHealth initiatives and investments.[7]
Other mHealth interventions use mobile functions such as voice, video or audio clips, and images to enhance the effectiveness of inperson counseling, which is of particular value among low-literacy populations
Summary
The absence of a shared language and approach to describe mHealth interventions will continue to hinder efforts to identify, catalog, and synthesize evidence across this complex landscape. The framework builds on prior efforts to describe types and uses of mHealth generally, such as in the WHO global survey on eHealth[2] and in the mHealth Alliance’s typology for mHealth services in the maternal and newborn health field.[10] These previous efforts, have focused more explicitly on the type of actor (client, provider, or health system) and location of the mHealth activity (community, facility, or health information system) Some of these descriptions provide details about the use of specific mobile functions (such as toll-free help lines) to accomplish particular health goals, other functions could have been used to accomplish the same goals and, over time, the functions described could be superseded by newer technologies. A visual depiction of mHealth implementa- rather than as tion through the concept of ‘‘touch points,’’ stand-alone or points of contact, which describe the solutions. specific mHealth interactions across health system actors (for example, clients, providers), locations (such as clinics or hospitals), and timings of interactions and data exchange (Figure 1, lower section)
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