The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health offer a metric mHealth programs can work to meet. Due to the rapid penetration of mobile phones, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a great opportunity to harness mobile technologies in the integration of healthcare delivery for maternal, infant and child health.
Current Scientific Knowledge in Maternal, Newborn, and Child mHealth
The World Health Organizations’ mHealth Technical and Evidence Review Group (mTERG) for reproductive, newborn, and child health, is a pioneer in the field of mHealth. The coalition is a compilation of experts from the fields of health, academia, and research institutions. The WHO mTERG recognizes that decision-makers in low and middle-income countries are faced with a multitude of information about mHealth tools and systems with little instructions on how to select the best approach of implementing mHealth tactics. The coalition provides guidance on selecting appropriate mHealth initiatives. Included in mTERG is Dr. Marleen Temmerman, a medical doctor and Belgian Senator. As a gynecologist, Dr. Temmerman is an international leader in maternal healthcare. Through her work on assessing the impact of syphilis in pregnancy outcomes in Kenya, Dr. Temmerman champions for improvements in healthcare of disadvantaged populations and for the reproductive rights of women (Temmerman, 2000).
Aaltje Camielle Noordam, a scholar from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and affiliated with UNICEF, creates an evidence-base for mHealth projects, focusing mainly on the delay in care and how to provide more efficient healthcare access (Noordam, 2011).
A professor of Global Health Policy at New York University, Karen Grepin researches opportune avenues for improvements to maternal and child healthcare, particularly in low and middle-income countries (Grepin, 2013).
Dr. Seth Noar, a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, leads the charge in understanding how to best communicate with patients. Dr. Noar is testing message design theories and frameworks to best understand what types of messages will be most memorable and call to action the receiver (Noar, 2012).