Community health workers in developing countries have mixed results in mHealth

Opportunities exist for mHealth to play a critical role in low- and middle-income countries where community health workers deliver integrated community case management to children sick with malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea, according to a Journal of Medical Internet Research study (http://www.jmir.org/2013/1/e17/).

Nevertheless, the review found very few formal outcome evaluations of mHealth in these countries and despite "vast documentation of project process evaluations," there were few studies demonstrating an impact on clinical outcomes.

Integrated community case management (ICCM) of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea is currently being implemented at scale in several African countries, says the study. In the Healthy Child Uganda project, for instance, community...