Digital Health
- Transitioning to Digital Systems: The Role of World Health Organization’s Digital Adaptation Kits in Operationalizing Recommendations and Interoperability Standards
The World Health Organization (WHO) digital adaptation kits distill WHO guidance into a standardized format that can be more easily incorporated into digital systems and facilitate communication between the health workforce and technologists to enable a shared understanding of the underlying content.
- Development of an Innovative Digital Data Collection System for Routine Mental Health Care Delivery in Rural Haiti
Mental health information systems in low-resource settings are scarce worldwide. Data collection was accurate, yet sustainable staffing was a challenge when using task-shared clinical providers for data collection in health centers in rural Haiti. Integrating mental health data collection within existing data collection systems would help close this key gap.
- Using mHealth to Improve Timeliness and Quality of Maternal and Newborn Health in the Primary Health Care System in Ethiopia
The use of mobile health (mHealth) in Ethiopia’s primary health care system offers a potential solution to improve timeliness and quality for maternal and newborn health care services. It is user-friendly and fosters communication between health care workers and health extension workers to provide quality services across the pregnancy continuum of care.
- An International Virtual Classroom: The Emergency Department Experience at Weill Cornell Medicine and Weill Bugando Medical Center in Tanzania
We created a sustainable, bidirectional partnership using telecommunication technology to enhance emergency medicine education collaboration. Telemedicine is a practical and innovative methodology to expand training in emergency medicine and establish bidirectional partnerships between academic departments in high-income and low- and middle-income countries.
- Global Access to Technology-Enhanced Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Students in Narrowing the Gap
Althoughsome medical education institutions in high-income countries have the capacity to shift education to eLearning during the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions in low- and middle-income countries might struggle to fully implement it. We argue for medical students to advocate for national and international collaboration in adopting technology-enhanced learning globally.
- Blended Learning Using Peer Mentoring and WhatsApp for Building Capacity of Health Workers for Strengthening Immunization Services in Kenya
Innovative learning strategies are needed to improve frontline health workers' skills for achieving immunization coverage goals—now even more important with COVID-19. Peer mentoring and WhatsApp networking are low-cost and useful blended learning methods for need-based and individualized capacity building of health workers for improving immunization services that don't disrupt the health care workers' regular work.
- Using Community Health Workers and a Smartphone Application to Improve Diabetes Control in Rural Guatemala
A smartphone application providing algorithmic clinical decision support enabled community health workers to improve diabetes control for a group of patients in rural Guatemala. This approach enables task sharing with physicians and other advanced practitioners for chronic disease care, which is particularly important in low-resource settings.
- Effectiveness of mHealth Interventions for Improving Contraceptive Use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review
Do mHealth interventions help reduce unmet contraceptive needs in low- and middle-income countries by attempting to increase the uptake of modern contraceptive methods? Which mHealth features and behavior change communication components were used in these mHealth interventions? This review aimed to answer these questions and assess the impact of these interventions on contraceptive uptake outcomes.
- Unintended Consequences of mHealth Interactive Voice Messages Promoting Contraceptive Use After Menstrual Regulation in Bangladesh: Intimate Partner Violence Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial
Automated interactive voice messages about post-menstrual regulation contraception delivered to women in Bangladesh via mobile phone were associated with increased reports of intimate partner violence. This finding highlights the importance of taking steps to minimize risk when delivering phone messages on sensitive topics and the need for assessing violence in such situations.
- Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India
This peer mobilization pilot for HIV and syphilis testing used messaging on gay dating sites, clinic referrals, and peer recruitment to reach men who have sex with men in Mumbai. In 6 months, the pilot reached a relatively modest 247 individuals, 244 of whom had never tested for HIV. Challenges included low recruitment and loss to follow-up for posttest counseling and treatment initiation for individuals with HIV.