The aim of this paper is to present the main findings of the interviews and observation undertaken in health locations in rural areas of Peru, aimed at exploring the application of mobile technology for health in isolated areas, and thereby to provide wider reflections about the use of mobile phones to improve health delivery in isolated areas in developing countries. It also reflects on methodological complexities, particularly those related to the application of online research methods, through the experience gained during the research.
The great growth of the penetration of mobile phones in developing countries has attracted the attention of the ICT4D community and numerous publications reflect about their impact for development (see for example Donner, 2005; Vodafone, 2004; Sullivan, 2007 or Scott et al., 2004). A part of this literature is focused on the application of mobile phones for health delivery (bridges.org, 2005; Katz, 2005 or Voxiva, 2005). Nevertheless, publications about the application of mobile phones for health focused in rural areas of developing countries are still scarce. This paper focuses on this gap of the literature, focusing on rural areas of Peru and wider reflecting about the behavior of mobile phones in this specific context.
Given the evolution and forecasts of penetration of mobile phones in developing countries (see Gartner, 2006 or Donner, 2005) as well as the appealing of these devices for the population (Castells et al.,2007), it is important to remark that Health Ministries in developing countries and development agencies have not paid enough attention to the possibilities that mobile technology brings for health delivery.
This paper reports on the interviews to healthcare workers undertaken in rural areas of Peru, aimed at exploring their perception about how mobile phones can contribute to the resolution of their information and communication needs, as well as provide wider reflections about the general debate about the benefits of mobile phones for health for development. The workers were chosen as participants in two innovative and contrasting ICT4D projects: CellPREVEN and EHAS, seeking at obtaining valuable feedback about their experience on one side, and their opinion as healthcare workers with no previous experience on the use of mobile telephony within an ICT4D initiative, on the other. Additionally, the paper aims at exploring the complexities involved in the methodology, particularly the difficulties in the appliance of online research methods during the research.
The article is structured as follows: first, the context of the research is presented; after that, some methodological issues about the field work in Peru are discussed. Next, the most remarkable findings of the interviews are presented, linked to wider reflections about the benefits of mobile phones in rural areas of developing countries. These results highlight three important advantages provided by mobile phones: the value of the immediacy in the communication for emergencies, the potential of multimedia capabilities of mobile phones and the improved reliability comparing to other technologies, but they also reflect on the recent limitations for their adoption and use in isolated communities. The article ends concluding that the application of mobile phones for health delivery is clear and of great impact in isolated areas of developing countries, but limited at this moment, with great potential in the short term.
