“From donkey ambulatory services for pregnant women in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan to free caesarean sections in Congo, reports about global efforts to improve maternal health were showcased in the past week as development experts gathered in various forums here during the U.N. General Assembly session from September 17…

Noting the WHO on Wednesday released its 2013 World Malaria Report, Marketplace examines how an epidemiologist at Harvard is using cell phones to track the disease in Africa by “plotting malaria cases on a map and then overlaying data showing where people are moving, which helps make better predictions about…

mHealthNews: mHealth priorities differ in developing nations Eric Wicklund, editor of mHealthNews “A new study making the rounds today claims that most apps in high-income regions of the world are focused on diseases, while there’s a shortage of such apps in low-income countries. … What this study doesn’t point out…

“mHealth can be defined as medical and public health practices supported by mobile technologies, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices,” Patricia Mechael, executive director of the mHealth Alliance, and Sarah Struble, a program associate at the mHealth Alliance, write in…

“Since a lot of health revolves around information, public health experts had high expectations for the mobile phone,” author and columnist Tina Rosenberg writes in the New York Times’ “Opinionator” blog, adding, “But roughly a decade after the start of mHealth, as the mobile health field has come to be…

“In over 15 years of working in the field of global health, I have time and time again witnessed first-hand what research tells us: gender inequity and women’s low social status have a significant impact on women’s and children’s health, as well as the overall demand for maternal, newborn and…

“Using mobile health technology to monitor patients in poor urban areas could improve residents’ access to health care while also reducing health care spending, a study [.pdf] conducted in a Rio de Janeiro hillside ‘favela’ slum suggested Wednesday,” the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports. The New Cities Foundation’s “18-month Urban E-Health…

“To promote development in India, [USAID] is increasingly pushing small-scale and low-cost innovation there,” Devex reports, adding, “One of these affordable solutions is Project Vikalp, an integrated family planning e-health care model by the U-Respect Foundation that aims to bring about high contraceptive prevalence rates among India’s populous rural communities”…

Christian Science Monitor: Tackling Indian maternal deaths by smartphone “Subhi Quraishi believes that the solution to the high maternal mortality rates that have dogged women in rural India starts with a mobile phone. Standing in his bustling New Delhi offices, Mr. Quraishi shows off the mobile ‘lifeline channel’ that his…

IRIN: Text and voice messages help close Bangladesh health gap “Bangladesh is moving to boost maternal health services in poorly served rural areas by targeting voice and text messages at expectant and pregnant mothers and their families. The aim is to educate and support mothers in places where health services…