The number of mobile phone subscriptions has increased by approximately one billion between the end of 2007 and the end of 2008 (ITU, 2009). At the beginning of 2009, the number has surpassed four billion. With this, the use of mobile phones and networks in the mobile health has become increasingly popular in low- and middle-income countries, including Ghana where a broad range of mHealth initiatives are now being implemented.
This offers many opportunities to translate information and communications technology into gains, particularly for fighting disease and improving population health. This mHealth Ethnography serves as a critical entry point to both assess the initial state of information, communication, and mobile phone use for maternal and newborn health both within the health sector and the general population in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Key study findings illustrate that there is a strong foundation upon which the MoTECH Project can build to advance the use of mobile telephony to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for health. These can be divided into two broad categories – those within the health sector and those that extend services to target beneficiaries in the general population.
The number of mobile phone subscriptions has increased by approximately one billion between the end of 2007 and the end of 2008 (ITU, 2009). At the beginning of 2009, the number has surpassed four billion. With this, the use of mobile phones and networks in the mobile health has become increasingly popular in low- and middle-income countries, including Ghana where a broad range of mHealth initiatives are now being implemented.
This offers many opportunities to translate information and communications technology into gains, particularly for fighting disease and improving population health. This mHealth Ethnography serves as a critical entry point to both assess the initial state of information, communication, and mobile phone use for maternal and newborn health both within the health sector and the general population in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Key study findings illustrate that there is a strong foundation upon which the MoTECH Project can build to advance the use of mobile telephony to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for health. These can be divided into two broad categories – those within the health sector and those that extend services to target beneficiaries in the general population.
Post new comment