“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”…

“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…

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…

U.S. News & World Report: Cellphones Can Change Global Health for the Better Lisa Chau, founder of Alpha Vert “For two days this month, the United Nations Headquarters in New York hosted the invite-only Cavendish Global Impact Forum. Among the panel discussions was how to identify innovations with the potential for…

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…

“In Timor-Leste, a tiny country just north of Australia, progress against maternal deaths has been slow. … USAID has been working with Timor-Leste’s Health Ministry since 2004 to help find solutions to this terrible problem. In 2011, U.S.-based NGO Health Alliance International (HAI) won a USAID Child Survival and Health…