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Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Information on the Mobile Health Alliance

Working with diverse partners, the mHealth Alliance (mHA) advances mHealth through research, advocacy, and support for the development of interoperable solutions and sustainable deployment models. The mHA, hosted by the United Nations Foundation, sponsors events and conferences, leads cross-sector mHealth initiatives, and hosts HUB (HealthUnBound), a global online community for resource sharing and collaborative solution generation.

Some FAQs about mHealth

Q. What is mHealth?

A. mHealth stands for mobile-based or mobile-enhanced solutions that deliver health. The ubiquity of mobile devices in the developed or developing world presents the opportunity to improve health outcomes through the delivery of innovative medical and health services with information and communication technologies to the farthest reaches of the globe.

Q. What is the mHealth Alliance vision?

A. The mHealth Alliance seeks to mobilize innovation to deliver quality health services to the furthest reaches of the wireless networks. At the leading edge of the mHealth ecosystem, they seek to unite existing mHealth projects and guide governments, NGOs, and mobile firms to deliver innovative, interoperable solutions in the exploding mHealth field.

Q. How did the mHealth Alliance begin?

A. The idea for the mHealth Alliance emanated from a July 2008 conference in Bellagio, Italy, on the future of mHealth, during which participants committed to forming a non-profit mHealth Alliance to maximize the impact of mobile health, especially in emerging economies, by ensuring interoperability and open-standards based solutions.

Launched at the GSM Mobile World Congress in February 2009 by the Rockefeller Foundation, United Nations Foundation, and Vodafone Foundation, the mHA now includes the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the GSM Association among its founding partners.

Q. What are the key areas of focus for the mHealth Alliance in terms of public health problems?

A. The mHA is committed to ensuring the positive impact of mobile/ICT-based services across all health sectors, geographies and communities. The mHA has chosen to focus initially on maternal and child health with the inception and launching of the Maternal mHealth Initiative (MMI), as a way to model the potential of mHealth and developing the necessary reference models and prototype solutions. By focusing on mHealth solutions for the full continuum of maternal care, from pre to post-natal health, the mHA is able to identify a set of common needs that can also be applied to a wide variety of health areas.

January 31, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Text to Change is nominated for the GSMA’s 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards!

Text to Change is very proud to be nominated for the Best Product, Initiative or Service for Underserved segments for the GSMA’s 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards.

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

“Our congratulations go to all the nominees in this year’s Global Mobile Awards,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. “To get down to just 115 nominees across 10 categories, from more than 470 high calibre entries, certainly presented our judges with a tough challenge this year. It is a great achievement to be shortlisted among such a high quality field of entrants and we eagerly anticipate the announcement of the winners on Tuesday 15th February 2011 at the Mobile World Congress and look forward to showcasing another great year of innovation for the mobile industry.”

The GSMA today announced the nominees for the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards. The winners will be announced during an afternoon awards ceremony and evening party to be hosted by the British TV and radio presenter Jonathan Ross on Tuesday 15th February 2011 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The full list of categories and nominees for the 2011 Global Mobile Awards is available at:

Check out more of the GSMA nominees on this link

January 31, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Cn U Hlp Me? I Hve A ??

A Peace Corps Volunteer harnesses the power of text messaging for good health

Written by by Shannon Cummings

In a few short years, messaging (also called “SMS” for Short Message Service), has seemingly replaced phone conversations, letter writing and the traditional two cans attached by a long string as the primary form of communication for young people worldwide. Imagine if young texters in the developing world could get quick and accurate answers to their most personal sexual health questions anonymously, by simply sending an SMS. In Namibia, Peace Corps Volunteer Rashid Khan has developed a program that does just that. Khan is harnessing the global texting trend to fight rampant sexual health misinformation that contributes to a towering HIV infection rate and many unwanted pregnancies.

When Khan arrived in country, he immediately became aware of the lack of knowledge and resources Namibian youth had regarding sexual health. “After talking to local youth, both formally and informally, it became very clear that there exist serious misconceptions about pregnancy, sex, circumcision and other important topics,” explained Khan. And he was right—in his region “lack of knowledge” was listed among the top factors driving the HIV infection rate by the 2008 National HIV Sentinel survey. As a whole, the country of Namibia has an 18% HIV infection rate.

After discussing possible ways to address this problem, Khan learned of an automated, menu-based health information system started by two volunteers in the Philippines. This program allows consumers to access an abundance of pre-written health information through text messages. Khan recognized the potential to implement a similar system in Namibia, where cellular phone service is widespread and text messaging in the cheapest and most frequently used way to communicate. Together with Jennifer Moore, a fellow Namibian PC Volunteer, he developed the Health Education Response System (HER) in February of 2009.

Rashid Khan

Optimistic, but not content, Khan realized that “a fully automated system could only address the most basic of questions.” Searching for a more complete solution, he stumbled upon a North Carolina-based text line designed to answer sexual health questions from teenagers called the “Birds and the Bees Text Line.” Realizing that the demand in Namibia was present for such a service, Khan designed software so that by sending a question via SMS, consumers receive a tailored answer from a trained health Volunteer that is both accurate and timely. Additionally, the program was expanded to deliver SMS in a round robin fashion to a pool of 10 Volunteers across the country. Consumers can still view the pre-written content by texting MENU, and then following the directional guide through a menu of choices. A directory of anti-retroviral (ARV) clinics with complete contact information can be accessed by texting “ARV TownName”.

In Namibia, HER has proved transformative. The system’s popularity was evidenced in June of 2009 when nearly 2400 SMSs were processed to and from 325 unique clients. One key feature of the system is the anonymity of the questioner.

“Our goal was to answer the questions people couldn’t ask anyone else—to be a reputable, anonymous source of information,” said Khan.

By filtering all SMSs through a central server so that both Volunteers and consumers are shielded from each other’s phone numbers, anonymity is preserved. This lends itself to frank and open questions that the asker may deem too private, embarrassing or demeaning to ask without the veil of anonymity.

Another powerful attribute of HER is its connection “to a complex monitoring and evaluation system that automatically tracks, compares and reports themes of conversations.” Without identifying the data source, the records can be used as a database to inform other health-related projects of frequently asked questions and common misconceptions. The hope is that this wealth of information will contribute to a more informed and effective fight against the spread of disease bred by ignorance.

On top of all of this, the program has been meticulously designed with sustainability in mind. “Sustainability and replication were goals from the beginning. I designed the software to be installable and maintainable by anyone with minimal training,” Khan said. Not only have Khan and his group been able to secure free service from MTC, Namibia’s largest mobile network, they have also partnered with Lifeline/Childline which provides counseling to clients in need. Lifeline/Childline is in talks to take over the program when Khan completes his service and leaves Namibia.

In June 2009 alone, the HER program system exchanged 2,382 SMSs with 325 unique clients.

Khan’s success implementing HER serves as a model to others motivated to make a difference in their corner of the world. When asked for the advice he would offer someone with an idea to improve his or her community, Khan remarked:

“Dive right in today. Take inspiration and help wherever you find it.”

For more information see the PeaceCorps Press Release on the project here

January 24, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Hans Rosling’s TedTalk on Global Population Growth

About this talk:

The world’s population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology (you’ll see).

Hans Rosling

About Hans Rosling:

As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa. Now he looks at the bigger picture of social and economic development with his remarkable trend-revealing software. Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007. (Rosling met the Google founders at TED.)

Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.

January 24, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Hans Rosling Video: The good news of the decade?

About this talk:

Hans Rosling reframes 10 years of UN data with his spectacular visuals, lighting up an astonishing — mostly unreported — piece of front-page-worthy good news: We’re winning the war against child mortality. Along the way, he debunks one flawed approach to stats that blots out such vital stories.

Hans Rosling

About Hans Rosling:

January 24, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

USAID Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program Uses Mobile Technology to Improve Health Care

The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) is the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s flagship maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) program. Awarded in September 2008, MCHIP focuses on reducing maternal, neonatal and child mortality in 30 priority countries, contributing to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5.

Designed by USAID as a “Leader with Associate Cooperative Agreement” (LWA), MCHIP can be funded by USAID Missions and Regional Bureaus through traditional field support and other mechanisms. In addition, MCHIP can accept Associate Awards that Missions, Regional Bureaus or Global Offices develop with the Leader organization and oversee directly.

MCHIP takes “what works” to scale by working with USAID Missions, national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, communities and partner agencies. Based on country context and identified gaps in providing services at the household,community and referral levels, MCHIP designs program strategies to ensure that services reach women and their families.

What MCHIP Is Doing Using Mobile Technology

Nearly half of all births in developing countries occur in facilities, yet the quality of care provided is often unknown. Reported clinical practice may differ greatly from observed practice. MCHIP has developed a Maternal and Newborn Quality of Care (MNH QoC)Toolkit consisting of five mobile, electronic data-entry tools for assessing the quality of services provided in hospitals and health facilities. These are primarily checklist tools for observing health worker performance related to services provided for labor and delivery and essential newborn care. The tools are designed to capture health worker responses to spontaneous complications, such as pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), two of the leading causes of maternal death.

As of November 2010, MCHIP MNH QoC assessments have been conducted in five African countries, providing baseline data for quality improvement activities for maternal and newborn care at facility, regional and national levels.

Maternal and Newborn Health QoC Mobile Toolkit

Obstetricians and nurse-midwives are trained to use mobile phones for capturing observational health worker performance data at hospitals and health facilities;
Data is entered on Windows Smart Phone forms with Range, Logic, Skip and other data quality controls;
Data includes clinical observation checklists on labor and delivery services, antenatal care, facility inventories, health worker maternal and neonatal knowledge tests, register, maternity chart and partograph review;
Quantitative and qualitative data is captured via interviews, simulations and observation checklists including audio noted and pictures of partograph;
Data is backed up to internal SD card and then transmitted via GPRS to in-country servers; and
Results are uploaded to the Web in predefined table, graph and map templates.

A Tool for Improving Quality of Care

The overall goal for MCHIP is to contribute to the reduction of frequent, preventable maternal and newborn deaths through increased quality of known life-saving interventions in countries facing the highest disease burden. Mobile phones have improved the quality of data and expedited the timeliness of results reporting. Specific needs for effective interventions for screening, prevention and treatment of obstetric and newborn complications are being identified as results come in from the MNH QoC Assessments.

Data collected and analyzed provides an opportunity to guide development of program interventions to improve the quality of facility-based maternal and newborn care services. By providing a baseline and end line measures in countries where the survey is part of an evaluation of interventions being implemented, data also provides an opportunity to inform policy change and resource allocation. These indicators and data collection tools can be used in multiple countries to provide information on key screening, prevention and management of interventions of the most frequent direct maternal complications.

Click here to view the poster presented by USAID at the mHealth Summit 2010. Also check out this Youtube Video of MCHIP’s own David Cantor speak as part of the panel discussion at the Summit.

January 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Text to Change: SMS reminders double HIV testing

Short text messages can be used to increase HIV awareness and double the number of people who go for HIV testing, a survey has stated. According to the results of a survey conducted by Text to change, an SMS quiz and reminder sent to respondents led to an increase in the number of people who went for HIV testing.

The SMS campaign was conducted in February 2010 in Lira (Northern part of Uganda). The survey documents that after sending SMS questions and reminders in the second week of February, 398 HIV tests were carried out at the Lira AIDS Information Centre, twice the number compared with 185 in the first week of February.

The survey was conducted among 7,000 people in Lira with an average age of 28.Among those surveyed majority had sufficient knowledge on issues surrounding HIV and family planning. However, only 44 percent had been tested of HIV in the past year.

During the survey conducted by Text to Change, in partnership with Deutscher Entwicklungsdients (DED), more than 145,000 people in the North Western region of Uganda were asked via radio broadcasts to subscribe to the Text to Change HIV/AIDS SMS Quiz. A record 96% of participants in the survey stated that the survey helped them gain new knowledge on HIV and related issues. Ralf Westhageman from DED Lira, stated:

“Both AIC and DED were surprised with the excellent results in terms of program participation and uptake of HCT services. People in Lira liked this programme so much. Even until today we get an enquiry to continue with it. Together with the Town Council, we never expected such a high number (7,000) of subscribers to take part and get involved. In short, it is without doubt, that we can call it “the most successful HIV Programme in Lira to date”.

Participants received seven questions on HIV/AIDS issues and three on family planning. One of the questions asked was: Would you think of getting an HIV test? YES or NO to improve participants’ knowledge, an SMS confirming whether their responses were correct was sent. Participants, who replied an incorrect answer, received additional information on HIV.

The survey indicates that on average, 74% of all questions sent via SMS were answered correctly a clear sign that majority of participants are somewhat knowledgeable in regard to HIV and related issues.

This marked an increased level of awareness compared to the 2006 Domestic Household Survey where only 28% of women and 36% of men had any comprehensive awareness of HIV/AIDS. Men formed the majority of the respondents -81%. Generally women were much more likely to answer correctly on questions regarding their higher chances of becoming infected with HIV whereas men answered correctly on the issue of a woman transmitting HIV to her baby during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The objective of the study was to improve HIV/AIDS awareness and to increase the number of people going for testing services in Lira in order to increase the awareness of one’s HIV status and to encourage people to seek early treatment and care in order to decrease further HIV transmission. Lira-town has an estimated 80,000 inhabitants according to the results of the 2002 census and approximately 145,000 people living in the wider district. The high mobile penetration in East Africa has placed the use of SMS as an appropriate means of disseminating information due to easy access and simplicity in use.

Click on this link to the Text to Change website for the full research paper.

January 18, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Global Observatory for eHealth series – Volume 1

This publication presents data on the 114 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States that participated in the 2009 global survey on eHealth. Intended as a reference to the state of eHealth development in Member States, the publication highlights selected indicators in the form of country profiles.

The objectives of the country profiles are to:

describe the current status of the use of ICT for health in Member States; and
provide information concerning the progress of eHealth applications in these countries.

January 13, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Africa: Mobile Technology to Improve Health

Last year the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation – three of the leading foundations involved in global health, technology and humanitarian assistance – banded together to create the Mobile Health Alliance.

Karl Brown, associate director of applied technology at the Rockefeller Foundation, leads its electronic health and mobile health work. He recently spoke with AllAfrica about the Mobile Health Alliance, Rockefeller’s contribution, and the foundation’s other health initiatives in Africa.

January 13, 2011/by actualize

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