Creating an enabling environment for mHealth

As technology developers increasingly explore opportunities to expand their market to the health sector, there is the need to develop a practical approach towards applying technology solutions to solving key problems and then scaling them up in a way to both create efficiencies and generate positive health outcomes. For middle and low income countries, where healthcare resources are oftentimes already stretched, it becomes even more critical to begin by defining the problem, exploring existing technology solutions, and then identifying and testing the most appropriate one or combination of solutions. Unfortunately, this is not generally how technology solutions are developed and deployed. The trends towards migrating many of the pre-existing eHealth systems onto mobile or combined mobile and Internet-based platforms, creates an opportunity within mHealth to learn from the successes and shortcomings of prior eHealth applications, which focused on Internet-based access to medical information in settings which had limited access to fixed-line telephones and computers as well as training in the use of such technologies. This paper proposes a framework that ought to be considered for collaborative work between technology developers, health policy makers, and healthcare workers that ultimately maintains the improved care and wellbeing of citizens as the overarching goal when exploring mobile-based technology solutions.