How Mobile Technology Improves Maternal Health
By Lilian Museka
Simple mobile technology like basic cell phones can be used to save the lives of mothers in childbirth and improve the care of new born and children, reaching underserved populations in remote areas.
Mr. David Aylward, who heads mHealth Alliance, a partnership founded by the United Nations Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation says the mobiles can be used to check on patients, keep records, improving diagnosis and treatment in the field, letting community health workers consult general practitioners and specialists for guidance.
“Used by midwives in rural, urban slums and isolated areas, cell phones can also be attached to diagnostic devices, including those used for remote fetal monitoring or remote wireless ultrasound. This lets a midwife or health worker know in advance that a mother must get to a clinic. They can also be used for recording births and deaths or assuring that both women and children get the care they need when and where they need it”, he says.
Aylward adds that in the near future, wireless diagnostics like stethoscopes, blood pressure, temperature and insulin monitors, and ultrasounds will enable remote diagnosis and treatment far from the closest doctor or clinic with mobile technologies for health called mhealth or mobile health.
Statistics show that 70 percent of the world’s 5 billion cell phone subscribers are in the developing world and almost 90 percent of the world’s population has access to a wireless telephone signal.
Ayward points out that about three quarters of mobile phone users have texting capability and features such as GPS that can pinpoint their location, and that by 2015, about 60 percent of mobile phones are expected to be web-enabled.
“These networks are being extended almost everywhere. People are paying for the devices and the service, which shows that people value access to information and the ability to communicate, and that includes health information and communication,” says Mr. Aylward
Two thousand technology and health experts are expected at the second annual mHeath Summit, to be held between November 8 to 10 in Washington, D.C.
The summit is co-sponsored by the mHealth Alliance, and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health ( NIH)to further explore the potential of mobile technology in the health field, to promote its use, and to seek ways to overcome some of the current obstacles.
Featured conference speakers include William Gates, head of the Gates Foundation, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Julio Frenk, M.D., Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and Chairman of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Ted Turner, Chairman and
Founder of the United Nations Foundation and Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Mobile technology and mHealth will play a key role as the partners in The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) meet in New Delhi on Nov. 13-14. In addition to a number of speakers during the plenary sessions, PMNCH and the mHealth Alliance are organizing a detailed mHealth implementation workshop bringing together expert practitioners with industry to discuss specific ways to deploy mHealth systems.
PMNCH was formed to ensure that all countries meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for improving the health of women and reducing the toll of infant and child deaths by 2015.
Dr. Julian Schweitzer, Chair of the Finance Working Group for the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health Widely used, mobile technology could help less developed countries meet those goals.
“Cell phones are already there and usage is growing fast. At the most basic level, mobile phones can be used to keep track of people, call for emergency assistance, remind them of appointments and share information,” say Dr. Schweitzer.
She adds that the potential for the rapid spread of mobile technology suggests it will help those countries that lag behind, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa,in meeting the Millenium development Goals (MDGs).
“Of special concern are MDGs 4 and 5, which call for reduced child and maternal mortality. At the most recent assessment, 49 of the 68 high-burden countries had made little, if any progress toward meeting those goals. But mHealth has the ability to support those goals by improving information and communication for mothers, providers and administrators” she says.
The recently announced Global Strategy for Women's and Children’s Health identifies mHealth as a critical innovation that needs to be broadly applied to achieve the MDGs. PMNCH acted as the platform for the development of the Global Strategy, and will continue to advocate for financial and policy commitments to the Global Strategy.
Dr. Schweitzer says as this growth has occurred, more than 100 countries are exploring ways to use mobile phones to improve health. Adding that, “we are talking about applying in health care the same kinds of sophisticated information systems that most businesses use, extending them with wireless to reach everyone. In low and middle- income countries we have the opportunity to leap frog the developed world and do it right. This is a huge opportunity.”
The recently announced Maternal mHealth Initiative, a partnership between PMNCH and the mHealth Alliance, will develop a global consensus on mobile technology. The new partnership will conduct trials using an integrated information and communications technology system to underpin the full Continuum of recommended care for expectant mothers and newborns.