Providing home-based care using text messaging
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Abstract
The increasing miniaturization of mobile devices marks an important opportunity for the next
generation health care delivery. Mobile health (mHealth), existing at the nexus of health and technology
provides a singular opportunity to take health where it is needed the most. Having had nearly mainstream
adoption, may explain why the developed world is in tandem with health-related Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). On the other hand, developing countries still lag behind in meeting the same health-related
goals, yet they continue to report successful stories of mobile technology growth and adoption but no major
usage of the same to deliver healthcare. This research sought to explore existing mHealth applications to
establish their suitability for use in developing countries such as Kenya to provide home-based care. This was
done by a survey of existing literature and mHealth models, and an architecture developed in light of local
communication infrastructure and local mobile phone abilities. It was established that for developing
countries to take advantage of this leapfrogging technology in health, they would have to take advantage of
the Short Message Service (SMS) that is cheap and accessible to all. A relationship amongst mHealth
stakeholders was considered as key to enhancing the adoption of mHealth in such countries.
Description
2011 3rd International Conference on Information and Financial Engineering IPEDR vol.12 (2011), Singapore.
The increasing miniaturization of mobile devices marks an important opportunity for the next generation health care delivery. Mobile health (mHealth), existing at the nexus of health and technology provides a singular opportunity to take health where it is needed the most. Having had nearly mainstream adoption, may explain why the developed world is in tandem with health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On the other hand, developing countries still lag behind in meeting the same health-related goals, yet they continue to report successful stories of mobile technology growth and adoption but no major usage of the same to deliver healthcare. This research sought to explore existing mHealth applications to establish their suitability for use in developing countries such as Kenya to provide home-based care. This was done by a survey of existing literature and mHealth models, and an architecture developed in light of local communication infrastructure and local mobile phone abilities. It was established that for developing countries to take advantage of this leapfrogging technology in health, they would have to take advantage of the Short Message Service (SMS) that is cheap and accessible to all. A relationship amongst mHealth stakeholders was considered as key to enhancing the adoption of mHealth in such countries.
The increasing miniaturization of mobile devices marks an important opportunity for the next generation health care delivery. Mobile health (mHealth), existing at the nexus of health and technology provides a singular opportunity to take health where it is needed the most. Having had nearly mainstream adoption, may explain why the developed world is in tandem with health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On the other hand, developing countries still lag behind in meeting the same health-related goals, yet they continue to report successful stories of mobile technology growth and adoption but no major usage of the same to deliver healthcare. This research sought to explore existing mHealth applications to establish their suitability for use in developing countries such as Kenya to provide home-based care. This was done by a survey of existing literature and mHealth models, and an architecture developed in light of local communication infrastructure and local mobile phone abilities. It was established that for developing countries to take advantage of this leapfrogging technology in health, they would have to take advantage of the Short Message Service (SMS) that is cheap and accessible to all. A relationship amongst mHealth stakeholders was considered as key to enhancing the adoption of mHealth in such countries.
Keywords
mHealth, Short Message Service (SMS), Home-based care