On Tuesday, the mHealth Alliance and the United Nation's Innovation Working Group announced the recipients of two-year "catalytic" grants to expand the use of mobile technologies for improving maternal and child health worldwide, MobiHealthNews reports.
Grant Recipients
The grant recipients include:
- Changamka Microhealth, which seeks to transfer a card-based health payment system to mobile phones;
- Clinton Health Access Initiative, which uses technology to help the Malawi Ministry of Health find patients who miss appointments, communicate test results and identify patients with urgent medical conditions;
- International Institute for Communication and Development, which is partnering with a telecommunications company to help semi-literate community health workers prevent malaria;
- Malaria No More, which is working on an initiative to communicate with mobile phone users about malaria prevention;
- Medic Mobile, which is sending short messages via mobile phones to mothers in India reminding them to vaccinate their children;
- Praekelt Foundation, which develops open-source mobile technology that sends text messages on pregnancy and infant care to low-income women in South Africa;
- The Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, which is expanding a mobile clinical decision support system at nutrition day care centers in India; and
- VillageReach, which has piloted a toll-free hotline to improve case management of maternal and child health in certain rural areas of Malawi.
Comments
In a statement, Helga Fogstad -- head of global health for the Norwegian Agency for Developmental Cooperation, which is funding the grants -- said, "The power of innovation in mobile technology can only be fully utilized if success factors are identified and evidence is widely shared and utilized."
She added, "The catalytic funding mechanism is intended to do just that. Taking to scale these innovations will improve provision, access, quality or use of highly needed maternal and child health services" (Versel, MobiHealthNews, 9/27).