By: Linda Diep
Here in the United States, common uses for mobile devices include organizing, planning, texting, Tweeting, and general communicating, just to name a few. However, very rarely are they used to save a life. On Tuesday I attended one of many panel discussions at the 2010 mhealth Summit, which took place here in Washington, DC November 8-10th. The event, entitled “Achieving Health Priority Needs with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Mobile Interventions,” featured speakers from both the public and private sectors:
- Alain B. Labrique, Ph.D., MHS, MS, MACE, Assistant Professor, Program in Global Disease Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Karosar Afsana, MD, MPH, PH.D., Associate Director, Health Programme, BRAC
- Clint McClellan, Senior Director, Qualcomm Health & Life Sciences, Qualcomm Inc.
- Jon Stross, VP International, BabyCenter, LLC
- Moderator: Catharine Taylor, MSc Econ, Director, Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition, PATH
Focusing on health issues within maternal and child health, the theme of the discussion was based on the Continuum of Care, a model suggesting that the health and well-being of women, children, and infants are interlinked, and that endeavors to address these issues should be done jointly. Furthermore, the model also states that these populations should have access to health services and resources, which should also be available to them at all times.
Fortunately, successful public health interventions for maternal and child health have been putting mobile devices to use in efforts to shorten the distance between patient and healthcare provider. For example, in rural and developing Bangladesh, a patient’s health information is recorded and documented. Then, a community health worker uses a cell phone to transmit this information to a physician, who can then diagnose and provide treatment or instructions for the community health worker.
These mobile devices are also tools for empowerment. Karosar Afsana of BRAC states that women feel more confident from using mobile devices; they feel they have a say in their own health and have control over their health decisions. The women are also proud to own the cell phone, since it is something of value and something that they may not have had before.
The question of how to maintain and improve equity lingered throughout the discussion as well, bearing in mind that it is the poorest populations that are enduring much of the world’s mortality and morbidity burden. The stats1 below support this statement:
- More than 60 million women deliver at home without skilled care.
- About 530,000 women die from pregnancy related complications, with some 68,000 of those deaths resulting from unsafe abortion.
- About 4 million babies die within the first month of life (the newborn period), and more than 3 million die as stillbirths.
- Over 10 million children under the age of 5 die.
- Moreover, nearly all (99 percent) maternal, newborn, and child deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Fortunately, mobile technologies are playing a role in achieving equity by empowering women and families so that they know their rights to care, and linking them to the health services that are necessary for a quality of life that is enjoyed by those in developed countries.
The panel concluded with a discussion of challenges in mobile technology and health. Retention of community health workers poses an issue, as they are responsible for being the middle man for delivering health services. Availability of medical doctors, cell phones, and cell phone service can also serve as barriers to providing proper healthcare to these populations. Lastly, measuring the impact of these interventions on maternal and child health, and whether or not they are indeed making improvements is also a difficult feat. Without concrete data on impact, future interventions will not be funded, nor will decision-makers be swayed.
Despite these challenges, the future of mobile technology in bettering maternal and child health appears to be bright, and the use of this strategy will continue.
1. Statistics taken from “The Maternal–Newborn–Child Health Continuum of Care: A Collective Effort to Save Lives,” By Erin Sines, Anne Tinker, and Julia Ruben, a Save the Children and Population Reference Bureau publication
