mHealth is a term that means “mobile health,” as in harnessing the power of wireless technology to support healthcare provision, research or education. The infrastructure for mhealth is already in place as there are over 4.1 billion cell phones already in the world.
CORE Group has convened an “mhealth community of practice” for NGOs working on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the community level. We believe that this network is ideally positioned as a center point for innovation and field testing that will result in efficient, effective mhealth solutions: those that show measurable impact on the health of underserved women and children in low- and middle-income countries. Within the larger field of global health, mhealth efforts may have the most potential for impact within community-oriented programming, due to the "off site" and often remote nature of public health work carried out in communities and households.
Suggested Resources
mHealth Summit: Hosted by the Foundation for NIH, health professionals, IT experts and foundations converged at USAID to share experiences, tools and ideas. Visit their website to see presentations and resources.
The UNF mHealth Alliance acts as an umbrella organization to complement, draw together and expand upon the mHealth initiatives of multiple organizations around the world.
NetHope works to ensure that international humanitarian organizations have access to the best information and communication technology and practices when serving people in the developing world.
Mobile Active: A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact. Includes specific telecommunications data by country
Exploring Health-related Uses of Mobile Phones: An Egyptian Case Study by Patricia Mechael
http://technologysalon.org/2009/09/mhealth-means-more-than-mobility.html