behavior change
Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on Jan 10, 2012
Where can a pregnant woman find low-cost prenatal care in her area? How should she position a car seatbelt to best protect herself and her baby? Should she get a flu shot? During pregnancy, expectant mothers can have lots of questions; Text4Baby seeks to keep pregnant women informed about pregnancy issues through regular SMS updates sent to their mobile phones.
Developed by the national Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition and mobile health service provider Voxiva, Text4Baby uses SMS to send free health news and information to US subscribers. Started in February 2010, the program now has (as of November 28, 2011) about 258,000 people enrolled.
About 24 million messages have been sent on a variety of subjects like labor and delivery, nutrition, immunizations, mental health, developmental milestones, family violence, physical activity, and breastfeeding. Messages are timed based on delivery dates, and are available in both English and Spanish by texting either "baby" (for English) or "bebe" (for Spanish) to the US shortcode 511411.
| Text4Baby: Maternal Health Messages Via SMS data sheet 1501 Views |
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Russia
United States
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Posted by EKStallings on Nov 08, 2011
Evaluating mHealth Adoption Barriers: Human Behavior data sheet 773 Views
Author:
Jones, Tim, Stephen Johnston, Fonny Schenck, Juliet Bedford,
Abstract:
The Vodafone Health Debate series is part of our continuing commitment to thought leadership in healthcare. It brings together senior pharma, public and private health stakeholders to learn, share and debate on issues and new thinking brought forward by renowned thought leaders and industry experts. Our aim is to provide some evidence- based stimulus that will encourage all those working in the different areas of healthcare to consider the innovation opportunities that are now available to them.
We believe that real progress can only be initiated when all stakeholders look beyond traditional horizons and share ideas that challenge the status quo so that together we can identify new ways of addressing current issues. Regulatory complexity, financial constraints, entrenched infrastructures and poor investment in technology combined with a lack of understanding by technology providers has meant that digital innovation in healthcare has been slow to take hold.
However, given changing healthcare needs of an increasingly aging population and the challenges presented by the current economic crisis, there is renewed interest in the potential of mHealth and Internet solutions to help reduce costs, increase efficiencies and effectiveness. This paper explores the practical reasons behind the slower than expected adoption of digital health technologies and discusses experiences from other sectors that could potentially help create wide scale adoption.
Posted by Juliel on Jun 27, 2011
Financial Education: A Bridge Between Branchless Banking and Low-Income Clients data sheet 1073 Views
Author:
Cohen, Monique, Danielle Hopkins and Julie Lee
Abstract:
This paper examines the rapid evolution of branchless banking technologies and development of financial education as a tool to help low-income households better manage their money.
While focusing on getting delivery systems right, promoters of branchless banking often lose sight of the consumer. Despite recent enthusiasm regarding these new banking services, uptake and usage has been limited, and often does not include many of the poor. Reasons for lower usage rates among low-income populations include:
- Lack of familiarity with banking services;
- Limited trust in new financial delivery systems;
- Lack of understanding and experience using the technologies.
However, low-income households are willing to cross the digital divide and conduct their financial transactions through branchless banking. Higher usage is possible, but will require financial education to facilitate this process. This can be delivered through a variety of channels, such as radio, print media and class room training.
Finally, the paper presents a case study from Malawi which demonstrates the viability of branchless banking when potential clients have proper knowledge of how to use it and stresses that well-conceived financial education programs will achieve this aim.
