Title: Mobiles Phones for Health Worldwide: Moving From Hype to Context and Benefit
Author: Anne-Ryan Heatwole
Source: MobileActive.org
Date (published): 09/12/2011
Date (accessed): 13/12/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"We recently attended the mHealth Summit 2011 to learn more about the latest developments in the mobile health field. The conference brought together developers, practitioners, NGOs, representatives from corporate industries, and government officials to discuss the current state and future of mobile health.

Several key trends emerged among the discussions, focusing on: local buy-in and capacity building, the importance of building partnerships and trust among communities, and the need to transition from short-term pilots to scalable, sustainable mHealth projects.
…
Lessons Learned
The conference focused heavily on the potential of mobiles, but many of the speakers were careful to temper the promise with frank discussions about the reality of challenges in mobile health work such as local buy-in, sustainability, patient adherence, and technological capacity and capabilities. Ultimate takeaways from the mHealth Summit 2011 were that while there is a lot of hype around the industry, practitioners and developers are learning what works and what doesn’t and are able to begin more honest and productive conversations about what makes m-health work in the long run. By focusing on the actual beneficiaries, building local capacity and partnerships, and planning for scale and sustainability, m-health seems to finally be moving away from hype to more context-specific, integrated approaches and platforms. "

Title: From euphoria to pragmatism: The experience and the potentials of eHealth in Asia
Author: Ranmalee Gamage
Source: LIRNEasia
Date (published): 22/09/2010
Date (accessed): 26/09/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"The public lecture entitled, ‘From euphoria to pragmatism: The experience and the potentials of eHealth in Asia’ was held at The Sri Lanka Medical Association on 14 September 2010.

The lecture was on eHealth, which is being adapted widely, from primary to tertiary healthcare in many countries.. Especially, using more appropriate and relevant technologies, such as mobile technologies in tele-health and health informatics.

Dr. Angelo Ramos, a physician by training and an expert in public health education and promotion began with a presentation on From Euphoria to Pragmatism: The experience and potentials of eHealth in Asia. He pointed out that a vast expanse of research on eHealth has been conducted in developed countries. He emphasized the benefits of eHealth and how governments and other stakeholders can help to improve it."

Title: Implementing Healthcare Information in Rural Communities in Sri Lanka: A Novel Approach with Mobile Communication
Author: Indika Perera
Pages: 6 pp.
Source: Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.3 (No.2), 2009
Publisher: University of Otago and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Date (published): 30/08/2009
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Access to effective and efficient healthcare services without any difficulty is one of the essential parameters to consider for a country’s sustainable development. Though developing countries put much emphasis on improving their healthcare services, the disparity between service consumption of rural communities compared to their urban counterpart is still very visible. The effect is merely due to the disparity in service penetration levels between the urban and rural regions. Sri Lanka is also struggling to improve this scenario with various policy and tactical level approaches, yet there is lot to achieve. Improving healthcare and utility services through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is a prime research area among the scholars today. Like many other developing countries, Sri Lanka also initiated some projects to improve the healthcare sector infrastructure through ICT. This paper describes the need of a novel approach to provide better healthcare service to rural communities in Sri Lanka and details about such project which is at its final stages of development.

Title: Analysing the Challenges of IS implementation in public health institutions of a developing country: the need for flexible strategies
Author: Shegaw Anagaw Mengiste
Pages: 17 pp.
Source: Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.4 (No.1), 2010
Publisher: University of Otago and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Date (published): 25/03/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This paper explores the challenges of introducing computer-based health information systems in the context of the Ethiopian public health care system. Drawing empirical examples from the process of introducing computer-based health information system(HIS) in two regional states (Amhara and Benishangul-Gumuz) of Ethiopia, this paper analyses the socio-technical challenges influencing the transition towards a new computerised system and suggested the importance of developing context-sensitive strategies to tackle different challenges in different contexts. Building on the notions of installed base and cultivation the paper examines the socio-technical issues and factors that influenced the process of developing, customizing, and implementing computerised HIS in different settings. The findings of this paper revealed that contextual differences in terms of access to infrastructural reources, availability of adaquate and qualified manpower, and managerial commitment and support would significantly influence the implementation process. I argue that, such context-senitive challenges need to be dealt through flexible startegies that took in to account the specific context. In this paper, four diffferent flexible strategies: the strategy of gateways, top-down vs bottom-up approaches, flexible essential data sets and clustering have beed identified as being useful in implementing computer-based systems in different settings of the Ethiopian public health care system.

Title: Information Technology for Health in Developing Countries
Authors: Frederick Bukachi, MBChB, PhD and Neil Pakenham-Walsh, MBBS
Pages: 9 pp.
ISSN: 0012-3692 (print)
ISSN 1931-3543 (online)
doi: 10.1378/chest.07-1760
Source: Chest November 1, 2007 132:1415-1416
Publisher: American College of Chest Physicians
Date (published): 01/11/2007
Date (accessed): 26/08/2009
Type of information: scholarly article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML and PDF)
Abstract:
Poverty has deepened the crisis in health-care delivery in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, which is a region facing a disease burden that is unmatched in the world. Whether access to proven and powerful information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve health indicators is an ongoing debate. However, this brief review shows that in the last decade there has been significant growth in Internet access in urban areas; health-care workers now use it for communication, access to relevant health-care information, and international collaboration. The central message learned during this period about the application of ICTs is that infrastructural and cultural contexts vary and require different models and approaches. Thus, to harness the full potential of ICTs to the benefit of health systems, health workers, and patients will demand an intricate mix of old and new technologies.