Mobile health (mHealth) uses mobile communication technologies to improve health outcomes. In Tanzania, mHealth aims to make healthcare more accessible, sustainable, scalable, secure, coordinated and innovative. Examples of mHealth projects in Tanzania include disease surveillance, logistics, telemedicine, and messaging to support community health workers. While mHealth shows promise, challenges remain around scaling projects, data standards, costs, infrastructure, and managing collaborations between sectors.

1. Introduction to mHealth
Improving access to high quality health care
Steve Ollis
D-tree International

2. Overview
 What is mHealth?
 mHealth in Tanzania
 Examples of projects
 Challenges

3. What is mHealth?
The practice of medicine and public health, supported by mobile
devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using
mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs,
for health services and information.
The adoption of mHealth seeks to take advantage of the explosion
in mobile devices available worldwide

4. mHealth hits every part of the health system
Whole system EpiSurveyor, Child
Count+, disease
efficiency surveillance, data
Public health mining EMRs
improvement research
12580 appt. Telstra/Ericsson
booking (China), breast cancer
Frontline SMS: screening, 3G
Medic, EMRs, Doctor, Sana
Sproxil Information
Primary care
and self help
Medicine Link
(China), MiQuit,
Freedom HIV/AIDS, Wellcore emergency
Mobile Medline Plus response, Orange
Smartnumbers,
Frontline SMS
Management
Directly observed Emergency
of long-term
treatments, Ginger.io, care
self-management conditions
applications

5. mHealth and health market innovations focus in the
developing world and rural populations
Geographic mapping of programs with
concentrations in South Asia and East Africa Target populations
Children <5 167
Children >5 115
Young adults (13-24) 136
Elderly 14
Men 77
Women 277
Disabled 18
Ethnic minority 17
Formal sector workers 32
Informal sector workers 46
General population 522
Target geography Military 13
Urban/Peri-Urban/Rural 404
Rural 332
Urban 158
Peri-Urban 126
Source: CHMI

6. And mobile technology is particularly enabling in
certain areas of need:
Area of need Examples
Remote health workers and
Bringing healthcare to unserved or
underserved populations patients enabled through
data and communication
Standardization, capture and
Increasing the effectiveness and reducing
communication of patient and
the costs of healthcare delivery
supply data enabled
Improving the effectiveness of public Communication to large
health programs (incl. research) and populations—both targeted
preventing illness (incl. behavior change) and general—is enabled
Remote monitoring and
Treating chronic diseases, and keeping
diagnostics of patients
people out of hospital
enabled to reduce costs
Source: China Mobile

7. Tanzania mHealth Vision Established
mHealth in Tanzania, driven by the general public, will improve healthcare
outcomes throughout the nation. Specifically, mHealth will be:
• Impactful • Transparent
• Sustainable • Coordinated
• Scalable • Innovative
• Secure
Tanzania known as a world leader in
mHealth

9.  Disease
Map surveillance
 Logistics
 Telemedicine
 Clinical
decision
support
 Health
messaging
 Community
Health
workers
 Mobile
money
 More!

10. mHealth Tanzania Partnership
 Innovative public-private-partnership, working closely
with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of
Tanzania, USG CDC, and numerous Tanzanian and
international public and private sector partners
 Convenes multiple sectors, combining expertise and
resources to implement sustainable and scalable public
health programs that leverage the booming mobile
phone infrastructure in Tanzania

11. Partnership Approach
 Scale nationally, mobile-centric information solutions that
leverage mobile phones primarily, as well as PCs, smart
phones, the web, and fixed line phone lines
 Work in concert with initiatives underway in the MOHSW and
COSTECH, including integration with the national enterprise
architecture
 Leverage expanding private sector interest in ‘mHealth’ and
‘mMoney’ to develop long-term sustainable PPPs
 Collaborate with other governmental and non-governmental
implementing partners

12. Tanzania mHealth Community of Practice
 Over 90 members from over 30 organizations across
government, industry and non governmental sector
 Co-chaired by Ministry of Health and D-tree International
 Quarterly meetings and 4 technical working groups
 Share experiences and challenges and identify potential
collaborations
 http://groups.google.com/group/tanzania-mhealth

13. Direct to client communications

14. Clinical Decision Support

15. IDSR System
 Health facility workers report disease surveillance
data by making a free call from the field using any
mobile phone
 Diseases reported follow WHO standards:
 Diseases of Public Health Importance
 Epidemic-prone Diseases
 Diseases Targeted for Eradication / Elimination
 Real-time SMS & email alerts are generated by the
system for follow-up and action

17. Mobile money to facilitate care

18. Community Health Workers
 Over 250 HBCPs in Dar
using mobile phones to
provide care
 Reminder option for
pending referrals and
visits to clients
 Supervisors Update and
reminders for overdue
visits (SMS)

19. Challenges Identified
• No scaling plan • Lack of private sector incentives
• Lack of Data • Infrastructure: power and
Standards/Interoperability network coverage
• Cost • Siloed Funding
• Trust • MoHSW Procurement
• Knowledge Gap • Human Resources Gap
• Communication • Managing Collaboration
• Privacy and Security • Phone Adoption

20. Asanteni!
For more information:
Steve Ollis
www.d-tree.org
sollis@d-tree.org
+255 783 346 070