Mobile health and maternal care: A winning combination for healthcare in the developing world?

Abstract

Worldwide, concerted efforts are made to stimulate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in health care. From online Personal Health Record (PHR), treatment and appointment reminders by SMS, to the e-mailing of confidential clinical data, healthcare systems are increasingly using technologies to provide better services with less financial and human resources. Among ICTs for health, eHealth – i.e. health on the Internet – has been extensively studied whereas the use of mobile technologies for health called “mhealth” or mobile Health has been less documented so far. In 2013, almost 6.8 billion people were mobile phone users, mobile-cellular penetration rates stand at 96% globally (89% in developing countries). Access to the Internet, by comparison, is a reality for only 39% of the world population (77% of the developed world population is online). During the last three years, many health stakeholders and mobile technology providers have understood the high potential of mHealth and launched more than 600 operational projects in developing countries. In this article we are discussing this issue first by assessing the current state of knowledge on mobile health in developing countries, as well as the issues and challenges raised by mobile health. We then focus our discussion on maternal health to discuss the potential applications of these new techniques in this specific field. Finally we suggest several avenues for further analysis on the implications of using mobile phones as a tool for women׳s health.