This document discusses the potential for mobile health (mHealth) education to help address the shortage of trained healthcare workers in developing countries. It notes that millions more health workers are needed to achieve health-related development goals. While traditional medical professionals are important, training paraprofessionals like community health workers is also essential. The document then reviews how mHealth education applications can deliver training, testing and support to both health workers and individuals. It identifies opportunities to maximize mHealth education's impact through adopting systemic approaches, promoting collaboration, and aiming for scale.

1. mHealth Education: Harnessing the Mobile Revolution to Bridge the Health Education & Training Gap in Developing Countries Report for the mHealthEd 2011 at the Mobile Health Summit June 2011

2. STUDY SCOPE Appreciate the scale of the Health Education challenge in developing countries Review the landscape of mHealth Education applications in use today Identify opportunities and barriers for mHealth Education achieving its full potential, and propose ideas for advancing mHealth Education going forward

3. TO ACHIEVE THE MDGs, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES NEED TO TRAIN AND EDUCATE MANY MORE HEALTHCARE WORKERS Millions of health workers No. health workers 2.9-3.5 2.1 Additional health workers required to achieve the MDGs No. of health workers as of 2008 Relying solely on traditional medical professionals such as doctors and nurses is not sufficient to meet these demands. Therefore, training and support for paraprofessionals such as midwives, community health workers and nurses is essential to any cost effective health workforce strategy. Source: 1)Taskforce on Innovative International Financing Systems, More Money for Health and More Health for the Money, March 2009, and Working Group 1 Technical Report: Constraints to Scaling Up and Costs, 5 June 2009. 2) Kinfua, Yohannes et al. “The health worker shortage in Africa: are enough physicians and nurses being trained?” in Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2009, 87:225-230.

4. QUALITY TRAINING FOR HEALTH WORKERS MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE TO HEALTH OUTCOMES Source: WHO Global Experience of Community Health Workers for Delivery of Health Related Millennium Development Goals: A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems , Begum 198733 Rural Districts (Bongra, Tongi & Dhaka) Bangladesh.pg61.

5. MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN HEALTH AND OTHER ASPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT Source: International Telecommunication Union. The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures. 2010. Mobile phones are permeating society 5.3 billion mobile phones at the end of 2010; 3.8 billion in developing countries Access to mobile phone network for 90% of the world; 80% of the population living in rural areas. Mobile applications are already addressing a variety of development issues including finance, agriculture and education.

6. MHEALTH EDUCATION USES MOBILE DEVICES FOR TRAINING, TESTING AND SUPPORT OF HEALTH WORKERS AND INDIVIDUALS What is the NEED? Who is the LEARNER? What type of CONTENT is being delivered? How is the information being delivered? Availability of training Access to information Time efficiency Cost reduction Quality improvement Medical professionals Health institution students Professionals Community Individuals Curriculum delivery Learning support Consultation/ support Treatment protocols Reference materials/ resources Basic health information Low end phones Feature phones Smart phones Mobile-enabled devices

7. mHEALTH EDUCATION IS IN ITS FIRST WAVE

8. mHEALTH EDUCATION APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH WORKERS Source:

9. mHEALTH EDUCATION APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH WORKERS LEARNERS Applications to date have: Primarily served nurses and community health workers Provided supplementary materials to formal trainings, e.g., learning support, reference materials, updates on treatment protocols, etc.

10. mHEALTH EDUCATION APPLICATIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS Source:

11. mHEALTH EDUCATION APPLICATIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS Content provided to individuals tends to focus on general health, sexual health and HIV and maternal and child health

12. BEYOND THE FIRST WAVE: MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL FOR mHEALTH EDUCATION Adopt a systemic approach What are the priority areas where mHealthEd can make a difference quickly? Where are standards needed – hardware and software platforms, content formats, etc.? Should we focus on particular technologies? Is there value in a coordinated approach to content development? Promote collaboration between actors and stakeholders What is needed from different actors? How do we get key stakeholders involved? What incentives will make contributing to this effort attractive for each actor? Aim for scale How do we identify the best applications for scaling impact? How to we measure impact and potential? Which financing mechanisms should we look to in order to scale up the most promising mHealthEd applications?

13. THANK YOU Dave O’Byrne [email_address] Dr. Paul Callan [email_address] Matt Daggett [email_address] Robin Miller [email_address] Rumbidzai Sithole [email_address] Dr. Daniel Altman [email_address]