mHealth Solutions in Global Health Applications and Implementation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The rapid increase in mobile connectivity has given impetus to the medical and public health communities to leverage mobile phones as tools to relay health information, connect individuals to the health care system, and target public health campaigns through this fast-growing communication channel. Most notably, in low and middle-income countries, where mobile connectivity paved a new channel for overcoming geographical inaccessibility to health care services, these tools have been used to deploy and test a range of approaches to innovative delivery of health services. This chapter is organized in three parts. First, we introduce a classification of digital health interventions, characterizing ways in which digital and mobile technologies are being used to support health system needs. We present several examples of how digital tools have been used across a range of health care areas around the world. In the second section, we provide critical ecosystem and implementation considerations for development and deployment of digital health interventions. Finally, we present insights on innovative approaches to monitoring and evaluating digital health interventions and a summary of evidence to support the use of these tools.