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Abstract
The field of mHealth has made significant advances in a short period of time, demanding a more thorough and scientific approach to understanding and evaluating its progress. A recent review of mHealth literature identified two primary research needs in order for mHealth to strengthen health systems and promote healthy behaviors, namely health outcomes and cost-benefits (Mechael et al., Citation2010). In direct response to the gaps identified in mHealth research, the aim of this paper is to present the study design and highlight key observations and next steps from an evaluation of the mHealth activities within the electronic health (eHealth) architecture implemented by the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) by leveraging data generated through mobile technology itself alongside complementary qualitative research and costing assessments. The study, funded by the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) as part of the Open Architecture Standards and Information Systems research project (OASIS II) (Sinha, Citation2009), is being implemented on data generated by 14 MVP sites in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries including more in-depth research in Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Specific components of the study include rigorous quantitative case-control analyses and other epidemiological approaches (such as survival analysis) supplemented by in-depth qualitative interviews spread out over 18 months, as well as a costing study to assess the impact of mHealth on health outcomes, service delivery, and efficiency.
Acknowledgement
The authors specially acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues in each of the Millennium Villages Project sites. In particular, we thank the following site teams for their participation in and contributions to the OASIS Research, without whose support this project would not have been possible: in Ghana, Sam Afram, Wisdom Atiwoto, Eric Akosah and Joseph Mensah Homiah; in Tanzania, Dr. Gerson Nyadzi and Athanas Alois; in Rwanda, Felicien Ragaswore; and in Uganda, Dr. David Siriri and Dr. Martins Okongo. We also thank Maurice Baraza for assisting in the management of the research for the two East Africa sites and Rob Borland for his sustained technical assistance across all the sites.