Library Portal | UWC Portal
    • Login
    Contact Us | Quick Submission Guide | About Us | FAQs | Login
    View Item 
    •   Repository Home
    • Faculty of Community and Health Sciences
    • School of Public Health
    • Research Articles (SoPH)
    • View Item
    •   Repository Home
    • Faculty of Community and Health Sciences
    • School of Public Health
    • Research Articles (SoPH)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Applying a framework for assessing the health system challenges to scaling up mHealth in South Africa

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Published version (225.5Kb)
    Date
    2012
    Author
    Leon, Natalie
    Schneider, Helen
    Daviaud, Emmanuelle
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Background: Mobile phone technology has demonstrated the potential to improve health service delivery, but there is little guidance to inform decisions about acquiring and implementing mHealth technology at scale in health systems. Using the case of community-based health services (CBS) in South Africa, we apply a framework to appraise the opportunities and challenges to effective implementation of mHealth at scale in health systems. Methods: A qualitative study reviewed the benefits and challenges of mHealth in community-based services in South Africa, through a combination of key informant interviews, site visits to local projects and document reviews. Using a framework adapted from three approaches to reviewing sustainable information and communication technology (ICT), the lessons from local experience and elsewhere formed the basis of a wider consideration of scale up challenges in South Africa. Results: Four key system dimensions were identified and assessed: government stewardship and the organisational, technological and financial systems. In South Africa, the opportunities for successful implementation of mHealth include the high prevalence of mobile phones, a supportive policy environment for eHealth, successful use of mHealth for CBS in a number of projects and a well-developed ICT industry. However there are weaknesses in other key health systems areas such as organisational culture and capacity for using health information for management, and the poor availability and use of ICT in primary health care. The technological challenges include the complexity of ensuring interoperability and integration of information systems and securing privacy of information. Finally, there are the challenges of sustainable financing required for large scale use of mobile phone technology in resource limited settings. Conclusion: Against a background of a health system with a weak ICT environment and limited implementation capacity, it remains uncertain that the potential benefits of mHealth for CBS would be retained with immediate large-scale implementation. Applying a health systems framework facilitated a systematic appraisal of potential challenges to scaling up mHealth for CBS in South Africa and may be useful for policy and practice decision-making in other low- and middle-income settings.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10566/552
    Collections
    • Research Articles (SoPH) [426]
    • Prof. Helen Schneider [22]

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Assessment of the uptake of neonatal and young infant referrals by community health workers to public health facilities in an urban informal settlement, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 

      Nsibande, Duduzile; Doherty, Tanya; Ijumba, Petrida; Tomlinson, Mark; Jackson, Debra; Sanders, David; Lawn, Joy (Biomed CentralBiomed Central, 2013)
      Background: Globally, 40% of the 7.6 million deaths of children under five every year occur in the neonatal period (first 28 days after birth). Increased and earlier recognition of illness facilitated by community health ...
    • Thumbnail

      The global pendulum swing towards community health workers in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review of trends, geographical distribution and programmatic orientations, 2005 to 2014 

      Schneider, Helen; Okello, Dickson; Lehmann, Uta (BioMed Central, 2016)
      BACKGROUND: There has been a substantial increase in publications and interest in community health workers (CHWs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) over the last years. This paper examines the growth, geographical ...
    • Thumbnail

      The challenges of reshaping disease specific and care oriented community based services towards comprehensive goals: a situation appraisal in the Western Cape Province, South Africa 

      Schneider, Helen; Schaay, Nikki; Dudley, Lilian; Goliath, Charlyn; Qukula, Tobeka (BioMed Central, 2015)
      Similar to other countries in the region, South Africa is currently reorienting a loosely structured and highly diverse community care system that evolved around HIV and TB, into a formalized, comprehensive and integrated ...

    DSpace 5.5 | Ubuntu 14.04 | Copyright © University of the Western Cape
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    @mire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace 5.5 | Ubuntu 14.04 | Copyright © University of the Western Cape
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    @mire NV