Abstract
This paper presents results from a study on mobile phone use to connect two rural hospitals in Malawi with community health workers (CHWs), the hospitals work with. Mobile phone use at the hospitals has helped reduce the need for face-to-face communication to permit patient information exchange, meetings and appointments scheduling, as well as work coordination. On the other hand mobile phone use has proved paradoxical as it has introduced users to challenges, like recharging of phone batteries, they did not anticipate. The paper highlights use context-centric and solution based opportunities and challenges associated with mobile phone use in rural settings.
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© 2010 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
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Manda, T.D., Herstad, J. (2010). Implementing Mobile Phone Solutions for Health in Resource Constrained Areas: Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges. In: Villafiorita, A., Saint-Paul, R., Zorer, A. (eds) E-Infrastructures and E-Services on Developing Countries. AFRICOMM 2009. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 38. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12701-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12701-4_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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