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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Michele Castelli
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.While mobile phones promise to be an important tool for bridging the healthcare gaps in resource-poor areas in developing countries, scalability and sustainability of mobile phones for health (mhealth) interventions still remain a major challenge. Meanwhile, health workers are already using their own mobile phones (referred to as ‘informal mhealth’) to facilitate healthcare delivery in diverse ways. Therefore, this paper explores some strategies for integrating ‘informal mHealth’ in the healthcare delivery of Ghana, by highlighting some opportunities and challenges. The study mainly employed a combination of literature review, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with community health nurses (CHNs) and other stakeholders, who were purposively selected from the three ecological zones in Ghana. The study found that, while scale-up of ‘formal mhealth’ remains challenging in Ghana, almost all CHNs in our study are using their personal mobile phones ‘informally’ to bridge healthcare gaps, thereby promoting universal health coverage. This provides opportunities for promoting (or formalising) ‘informal’ mhealth in Ghana, in spite of some practical challenges in the use of personal mobile phones that need to be addressed to ensure sustainable healthcare delivery in the country.
Author(s): Mariwah S, Machistey Abane A, Asiedu Owusu S, Kasim A, Robson E, Castelli M, Hampshire K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Global Public Health
Year: 2022
Volume: 17
Issue: 5
Pages: 768-781
Online publication date: 24/01/2021
Acceptance date: 03/01/2021
Date deposited: 25/03/2021
ISSN (print): 1744-1692
ISSN (electronic): 1744-1706
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1874467
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2021.1874467
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