Evaluating Network Readiness for mHealth Interventions Using the Beacon Mobile Phone App: Application Development and Validation Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have the potential to transform the global health care landscape. The processing power of mobile devices continues to increase, and growth of mobile phone use has been observed worldwide. Uncertainty remains among key stakeholders and decision makers as to whether global health interventions can successfully tap into this trend. However, when correctly implemented, mHealth can reduce geographic, financial, and social barriers to quality health care. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to design and test Beacon, a mobile phone–based tool for evaluating mHealth readiness in global health interventions. Here, we present the results of an application validation study designed to understand the mobile network landscape in and around Macha, Zambia, in 2019. METHODS Beacon was developed as an automated mobile phone app that continually collects spatiotemporal data and measures indicators of network performance. Beacon was used in and around Macha, Zambia, in 2019. Results were collected, even in the absence of network connectivity, and asynchronously uploaded to a database for further analysis. RESULTS Beacon was used to evaluate three mobile phone networks around Macha. Carriers A and B completed 6820/7034 (97.0%) and 6701/7034 (95.3%) downloads and 1349/1608 (83.9%) and 1431/1608 (89.0%) uploads, respectively, while Carrier C completed only 62/1373 (4.5%) file downloads and 0/1373 (0.0%) file uploads. File downloads generally occurred within 4 to 12 seconds, and their maximum download speeds occurred between 2 AM and 5 AM. A decrease in network performance, demonstrated by increases in upload and download durations, was observed beginning at 5 PM and continued throughout the evening. CONCLUSIONS Beacon was able to compare the performance of different cellular networks, show times of day when cellular networks experience heavy loads and slow down, and identify geographic “dead zones” with limited or no cellular service. Beacon is a ready-to-use tool that could be used by organizations that are considering implementing mHealth interventions in low- and middle-income countries but are questioning the feasibility of the interventions, including infrastructure and cost. It could also be used by organizations that are looking to optimize the delivery of an existing mHealth intervention with improved logistics management.

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Evaluating Network Readiness for mHealth Interventions Using the Beacon Mobile Phone App: Application Development and Validation Study

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/18413 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. e18413

Author(s):

Thomas Foster Scherr ◽

Carson Paige Moore ◽

Philip Thuma ◽

David Wilson Wright

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Global Health ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Cellular Networks ◽

Validation Study ◽

Network Performance ◽

Mobile Network ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Application Development ◽

Quality Health Care

Background Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have the potential to transform the global health care landscape. The processing power of mobile devices continues to increase, and growth of mobile phone use has been observed worldwide. Uncertainty remains among key stakeholders and decision makers as to whether global health interventions can successfully tap into this trend. However, when correctly implemented, mHealth can reduce geographic, financial, and social barriers to quality health care. Objective The aim of this study was to design and test Beacon, a mobile phone–based tool for evaluating mHealth readiness in global health interventions. Here, we present the results of an application validation study designed to understand the mobile network landscape in and around Macha, Zambia, in 2019. Methods Beacon was developed as an automated mobile phone app that continually collects spatiotemporal data and measures indicators of network performance. Beacon was used in and around Macha, Zambia, in 2019. Results were collected, even in the absence of network connectivity, and asynchronously uploaded to a database for further analysis. Results Beacon was used to evaluate three mobile phone networks around Macha. Carriers A and B completed 6820/7034 (97.0%) and 6701/7034 (95.3%) downloads and 1349/1608 (83.9%) and 1431/1608 (89.0%) uploads, respectively, while Carrier C completed only 62/1373 (4.5%) file downloads and 0/1373 (0.0%) file uploads. File downloads generally occurred within 4 to 12 seconds, and their maximum download speeds occurred between 2 AM and 5 AM. A decrease in network performance, demonstrated by increases in upload and download durations, was observed beginning at 5 PM and continued throughout the evening. Conclusions Beacon was able to compare the performance of different cellular networks, show times of day when cellular networks experience heavy loads and slow down, and identify geographic “dead zones” with limited or no cellular service. Beacon is a ready-to-use tool that could be used by organizations that are considering implementing mHealth interventions in low- and middle-income countries but are questioning the feasibility of the interventions, including infrastructure and cost. It could also be used by organizations that are looking to optimize the delivery of an existing mHealth intervention with improved logistics management.

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Predicting the Quality of Service Experienced By the Users Based on the Measurement History of the Network

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering - Special Issue ◽

10.35940/ijitee.b6703.129219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 2286-2290

Keyword(s):

Mobile Phone ◽

Network Performance ◽

Mobile Network ◽

Mobile Internet ◽

Mobile Phone Network ◽

History Of ◽

Set Up ◽

Mobile Network Operators ◽

Internet Company

Growing from one generation to the following, wireless networks have frequently been enhancing their efficiency in various methods and also for varied purposes. The increase in the usage of different mobile phone world broad web functions may result in degeneration in the mobile network performance. Such destruction often drops the efficiency of the mobile network solutions that can influence the mobile World broad web consumer's experience, which can create the world wide web individuals switch between different mobile network operators to get excellent customer experience. In this particular situation, the effectiveness of mobile phone network operators primarily relies on the capability to make a certain top quality of experience (QoE), which is a procedure of consumers' identified quality of mobile Internet company. The goal is actually to exploit the information made by and already accessible in the network to appropriately release, set up, and optimize network nodules.

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mHealth for mental health: readiness among perinatal adolescents in Nigeria (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.20314 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lola Kola ◽

Dolapo Abiona ◽

Adeyinka Olufolake Adefolarin ◽

Dror Ben-Zeev

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Health Care ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Mobile Phones ◽

Adolescent Mothers ◽

Text Messages ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Young Mothers

BACKGROUND There are several barriers that may hamper adolescent mothers’ utilization of available health interventions for perinatal depression. Innovative treatment approaches are needed to increase their access to mental health care for improved maternal and child health outcomes. Mobile phones have the potential to serve as important conduits to mental health care in Africa. However mobile phone pattern of use and needs of young mothers in Nigeria are unknown. OBJECTIVE This study sought to document the prevalence of mobile phone use among perinatal adolescents and report their pattern of use, as well as the openness of young mothers to mHealth mental health interventions. METHODS We surveyed two hundred and sixty (260) adolescent mothers aged between 16 -19 years in their perinatal or postnatal periods of pregnancies in thirty-three (33) primary health care clinics in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria between 24th February and 23rd March 2020. Respondents were included if they were pregnant with gestation age of >4 weeks, or were with babies of not more than 12 months. RESULTS The total study sample consisted of 260 adolescent mothers with a mean age of 18.4 (SD = 0.88). The majority of the respondents (233, 89.6%) owned mobile phones, 22 (8.5%) had access to phones that belonged to relatives who live in the same house with them (for an average of eighty (80) minutes per day), while 5 (1.9) had access only to public paid phones. On average, respondents reported 15.5 (SD = 2.06) years as the age when they first started using a mobile phone. The majority of respondents (222, 85.4%) use their phones averagely for 45 minutes daily for calls to family members. Facebook was the most used social media site among internet users (122, 83.4%), The majority responded being “interested and “very interested in the use of mobile phones for preventive (250, 96.2%) and treatment (243, 93.5%) information on a mental illness such as depression and “hearing voices." Half of the respondents (126, 50.4%) preferred to receive such information as text messages, while very few (26, 10.4%) wanted, such as videos on phone applications. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study support a broad willingness to engage in mHealth initiatives for the delivery of care for mental illness among perinatal adolescents. A variety of smartphone device supported interventions can be considered as promising in this population because of their high literacy rate. CLINICALTRIAL NA

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Putting a Number on the Harm of Death

Saving People from the Harm of Death ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190921415.003.0005 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 61-75

Author(s):

Joseph Millum

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Global Health ◽

Health Systems ◽

National Health ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Health Programs ◽

Health Care Resources ◽

Different Ages ◽

The Face ◽

Harm Of Death

Donors to global health programs and policymakers within national health systems have to make difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce health care resources. Principled ways to make these decisions all make some use of summary measures of health, which provide a common measure of the value (or disvalue) of morbidity and mortality. They thereby allow comparisons between health interventions with different effects on the patterns of death and ill health within a population. The construction of a summary measure of health requires that a number be assigned to the harm of death. But the harm of death is currently a matter of debate: different philosophical theories assign very different values to the harm of death at different ages. This chapter considers how we should assign numbers to the harm of deaths at different ages in the face of uncertainty and disagreement.

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Telemedicine: Underutilized Tool of Global Health

Annals of King Edward Medical University ◽

10.21649/akemu.v22i1.786 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Dr. Saira Afzal

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Global Health ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Appropriate Technology ◽

World Health ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Care Providers ◽

Medical Practices ◽

Recent Advances

Challenges bring an opportunity for success and each success is followed by a new challenge. Challenges and successes witnessed in the discipline of medicine are numerous. When world was preparing to enter the new millennium twenty years ago many great challenges were faced by medical professionals in-order to implement plans of quality health provision to every human globally. Health for all strategy, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and many other similar plans are the examples of such great vision to provide health care with equitable distribution, appropriate technology, community participation and acceptance among masses. Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at far flung areas with connections through networking. In absence of telemedicine, the equitable access to deliver better health care is difficult especially in remote communities as some health standards could not be implemented on providers and recipients in different places at the same time. Recent advances in telemedicine have created opportunities for health care providers and recipients to overcome the barriers of lack of awareness and deficiency of standard approach towards prevention and management. The experts could extend their teaching and evidence based medical practices in order to increase standards of health care globally. Information technology helps to eliminate distance and communication barriers and can improve access to medical services that are deficient or in distant rural communities. The communities in far-flung areas and isolated populations can receive health care from specialist residing at a distance without patient to the need of travel to visit them. Telemedicine can also be used to train health workers in field, providing evidence based medical practices, facilitation in standard operating procedures, delivery of medical education, sharing best practices and experiences. Recent advances in mobile techno-logy and the potential for global health elevated telemedicine as a popular force in health care. The special-ties that can be focused during implementation of telemedicine practices include preventive medicine, radiology, pathology, cardiology, mental health services, primary care, emergency care, physical rehabilitation, pediatrics, obstetrics, immunization, nutrition, mother and child health, disaster management, epidemic control, health system monitoring and management and many others. Telemedicine in developing countries like Pakis-tan is a tool of global health. Pakistan is an over populated country where people are, by the large, deprived of proper medical facilities especially those living in far flung areas. The implementation of telemedicine can facilitate the patients and educate the health care providers for the purpose of improving patient care. In Pakistan, biometric verficationby Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has declared mobile phone users in the country; according to which the figure for mobile phone users is estimated to be near 114.7 million. Thus big resource is available that can be channelized to improve health and prevent disease through telemedicine across the country and beyond geographical boundaries.According to World Health Organization (WHO), the use of telemedicine in provision of health care is not simply about technology, but a means to reach an out-come, such as better decisions for provision of prevention and management, vulnerable populations received high quality and safer care, more awareness about health making people to have better choices for their health, better surveillance of communicable and non-communicable disease, government become more responsible and aware of health needs of populations. More-over equitable, appropriate, acceptable, effective and efficient monitoring of resources at Healthcare Centers. The satisfaction of patients and health care provi-ders were found positive over time. According to Care Hill more than 80% of consumers find their health care to be satisfactory. Telemedicine is occasionally blamed of being driven by commercial rather than public health interests. However in spite of this criticism, telemedicine is linking the rich communities with poors globally. Nevertheless, telemedicine is an effective tool for surveillance, monitoring, standardization, research, and implementation. There is no alternative to telemedicine. There are several telemedicine networks linking the industrialized and developing world, this is an area that is likely to grow in the future. Global health strategies have to focus on underutilized tool for better access to health care.

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