The importance of economic evaluations of mHealth pilots: A proposed malawian Case-Study

Teresa Berkery, Yvonne O'Connor, Deirdre Ryan, Ciara Heavin, Joe Gallagher, John O'Donoghue

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Health care in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) is facing a major challenge in terms of developiong a sustainable financial model; leading to difficulties such as poor retention of professional staff, fragmented and uncoordinated patient information; further exacerbated by limited national funds. Mobile Health (mHealth) potentially offers a low-cost solution to overcome some of these challenges. To date, there is a dearth of research regarding the cost-effectiveness of mHealth solutions in LMICs. As an exemplar case study, this paper introduces the World Health Organisation (WHO) Community Case Management (CCM) (a set of clinical paper based guidelines for treating childhood (> 2 months and < 5 years of age) illness in LMICs), and evaluates the potential of converting it into a mHealth solution. The Supporting Low-cost Intervention For disEase control (LIFE) electronic CCM application (SL eCCM app) is a mHealth decision support tool that digitises clinical guidelines. Its decision support system aims to reduce human error and improve the quality of care for children in rural Malawi. An economic evaluation and statistical tests are proposed to assess and evaluate the SL eCCM app based on results attained from a technical feasibility study. The procedure and key considerations for the economic evaluation are outlined. To date, many mHealth projects never expand beyond small scale pilot projects. The failure to achieve wide scale adoption may, in part, be attributed to the lack of quantitative data demonstrating the value of the technology to respective local governments and other relevant stakeholders.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 9th European Conference on IS Management and Evaluation, ECIME 2015
PublisherAcademic Conferences and Publishing International Limited
Pages21-28
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781910810545
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event9th European Conference on IS Management and Evaluation, ECIME 2015 - Bristol, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Sep 201522 Sep 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings of the European Conference on IS Management and Evaluation, ECIME
Volume2015-January
ISSN (Print)2048-8912

Conference

Conference9th European Conference on IS Management and Evaluation, ECIME 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityBristol
Period21/09/1522/09/15

Keywords

  • Cost effectiveness
  • Economic evaluation
  • LMICs
  • MHealth
  • Quantitative analysis

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