Bridging the Human Resource Gap in Primary Health Care Delivery Systems of Developing Countries With mHealth: Narrative Literature Review

Abstract

BackgroundMobile health (mHealth) has the potential to solve human resource issues in the health care sector. mHealth is of particular interest in developing countries, where widespread mobile networks and access to devices are connecting people like never before.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to review published and unpublished literature, field projects, and pilot studies on mHealth usage in overcoming shortage of human health resources in developing countries.MethodsA narrative literature review was undertaken using an iterative approach in extracting literature focused on mHealth and human health resources of low-income countries, especially India. The present review has undertaken comprehensive coverage of the work on related field projects that have been either published, accepted for publication, or pilot tested.ResultsThis review presented the use of mHealth across various dimensions of primary health care, including data collection, disease surveillance, health education, supervision, monitoring, and feedback. Field studies of fast, error-free data collection and transmission using mHealth were also documented. New apps for supervision, monitoring, and utilization of innovative health education tools were documented in the current review. Practical limitations of mHealth and challenges set forth in developing countries included issues of data security, cost constraints, health provider privacy, and technical barriers.ConclusionsIn the present review, we have documented a few mHealth projects that contribute to the proficient use of human resources. These projects pave the path for the efficient utilization of mHealth, offering solutions to emerging human resource challenges and simultaneously revamping the health care delivery in resource-limited settings.

Use of mHealth Systems and Tools for Non-Communicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a Systematic Review

“…Although the number of studies included in these reviews have been few in number, improvements have been observed in health care service delivery processes [10], behavior change (particularly smoking cessation) [10,11], and use of geographic information systems to support improved health care [12]. In LMIC settings, the mHealth literature is dominated by interventions in maternal and child health and sexual health, with a particular focus on use of mobile phones for data collection [13][14][15]. Braun et al identified 25 studies exploring community health workers' use of mobile technology [14].…”

“…Most studies were small scale and of the few that reported outcome evaluations, some demonstrated improvements in quality of care. Goel et al conducted a narrative synthesis of 28 studies to examine the role of mHealth in bridging human resource gaps [15]. The authors found mHealth to be widely used in PHC settings for varying purposes including data collection, health surveillance, health education, supervision, and monitoring.…”

What’s Past is Prologue: A Scoping Review of Recent Public and Global Health Informatics Literature

“…As mobile technologies have proliferated throughout LMICs, their use in a variety of healthrelated activities has been studied [61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. As rapidly as mobile technology use has grown, the mHealth literature also has rapidly increased.…”

Multistakeholder Perspectives on Maternal Text Messaging Intervention in Uganda: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

“…Maternal mortality is decreasing in many countries, yet over 300,000 women still die annually, particularly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) [1]. The utilization of mobile health (mHealth) has been proposed as a potential solution to improve maternal health outcomes in LMICs [2][3][4]. There is evidence in a growing body of research that despite indications of positive outcomes, the continued focus of mHealth research on activities and inputs and less on the mechanisms behind program success and failure have contributed to gaps in evidence on the effectiveness on mHealth interventions [5][6][7][8].…”