Mobile Health for Development
When health officials need to track the success rate of health campaigns, they turn to a mobile health tool that enables data to be quickly and accurately collected even in the most remote areas.
Read the report: mHealth for Development
The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World
Working with the World Health Organization (WHO), the nonprofit DataDyne.org, and country Ministries of Health, the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership is developing a sustainable and scalable technology solution to quickly collect vital health data. This data is equipping decision makers with the right tools to make smart decisions about critical public health issues, making it easier to combat deadly diseases and save lives.
The Mobile Health (mHealth) for Development program is decreasing the cost of health data collection by supporting the development of the free and open source EpiSurveyor software for mobile devices. It is increasing the capacity of developing-country health workers by training more than 800 health workers in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2008. Plans for expansion in other regions are now underway.
With the Rockefeller Foundation, we co-hosted a weeklong discussion of mHealth challenges and opportunities at the conference “Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partners, Local Solutions.” It was designed to develop a roadmap and global partnerships to support emerging digital technologies to improve public health. Twenty-five private sector and public health leaders explored the challenges, opportunities and way forward in building mHealth systems to improve the access, efficiency and quality of health services in the developing world. Click here for more information.
The UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation’s mHealth for Development program, and the projects it supports, are the 2008 recipients of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Information Technology Award, the Mobile Industry Review Award for Best Public Use of Mobile, and the PRNews Award for Nonprofit PR. For its work with the Technology Partnership, DataDyne.org was honored with the 2008 Stockholm Challenge Award, a 2008 Tech Museum Award Laureate, and named one of Fast Company’s top 10 Social Enterprises for 2009.
Read about our mHealth program in the recent report Wireless Technology for Social Change.
STORIES OF IMPACT
Connecting in the Midst of a Disaster
Area of Involvement: Technology
Heavy flooding along Mozambique’s Zambezi River displaced nearly 300,000 Mozambicans from their homes in early 2008. Water levels were so high that resettlement camps from a 2007 flooding had to be resettled again.
Phone calls and nets comfort DRC refugees
Area of Involvement: Children’s Health;Technology
We're helping more than 60,000 refugees in Uganda who fled the conflict in Democractic Republic of Congo by giving them protective bed nets and getting them in touch with their families through emergency communications.
RESOURCES
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mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World
Issue Area: Technology
This report examines issues at the heart of the rapidly evolving intersection of mobile phones and healthcare. It helps the reader to understand mHealth’s scope and implementation across developing regions, the health needs to which mHealth can be applied, and the mHealth applications that promise the greatest impact on heath care initiatives.
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mHealth for Development
Issue Area: Technology
The most recent publication in our series—mHealth for Development: Mobile Communications for Health—outlines the opportunity presented by the burgeoning field of mobile health (mHealth). The publication examines the rapid adoption of mobile technologies by developing countries to improve health data collection - ultimately precipitating improvements in general health and patient care in some of the most remote and resource-poor regions of the world.
