Harnessing the Power of Mobile Phone Technology to Improve Maternal Healthcare in Tanzania: Proposed Model

Abstract

In the effort to reduce maternal mortality rate, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 was declared globally. Tanzania has no exception on this. Maternal mortality and morbidity is still an enduring challenge in Tanzania. In 2010 the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) was recorded at 454/100,000 live births. Despite of the devoted efforts and significant progress that Tanzania has made in reducing MMR, still the situation demands for more improved intervention. One among the contributors of maternal mortality is lack of education to expectant mothers. In this paper, a model with a pivotal role to extend health information accessibility to expectant mothers is proposed. A proposed model is exploiting the potential and power of mobile phones to deliver its services. Existing extended network coverage and expansion of mobile phone usage are the unprecedented advantages that would also be exploited.

Current Landscape and Potential of Mobile Computing Research in the Least Developed Countries

“…However, the majority of these studies were 'action research', with no clear theoretical underpinnings. The studies explored the capability of mobile technologies such as support in monitoring, case detection and health interventions (Callaway et al, 2012;Chang et al, 2008;Deribe and Roda, 2012;Haq, 2013;Lund et al, 2012;Modi, 2013;Nchise et al, 2012;Nyamawe and Seif, 2014;Prue et al, 2013;Shao et al, 2015;Teng et al, 2014), medical supplies inventory (Asiimwe et al, 2011;Barrington et al, 2010), community-based health training (Chang et al, 2012) and health science research (Glickman et al, 2012).…”

“…Researchers are in consensus that mobile technology is an efficient and effective tool to speed up diagnosis and treatment of patients in a remote area specially when combined with local knowledge and support (Deribe and Roda, 2012;Haq, 2013;Nyamawe and Seif, 2014;Prue et al, 2013;Shao et al, 2015;Teng et al, 2014). It also helps improve health workers performance and efficiency which eventually leads to improving the health of patients (Chang et al, 2012).…”