What ' s mHero ' s Secret to Giving Health Officials Real-Time Information during a Pandemic?

By Caitlin Loehr, Digital health technical advisor ; Richard Stanley, Senior Product Manager, Digital Health ; Ally Shaban, Senior regional software engineer A health worker checks their phone on the way to visit HIV-positive clients in Livingston Izabal, Guatemala. Photo by Levi Dieguez for IntraHealth International.January 13, 2022When Ebola spread through Liberia in August 2014, health workers needed information—and they needed it fast. We’ve seen exactly the same need during the COVID-19 pandemic.Back in 2014,IntraHealth International andUNICEF createdmHero—a two-way, mobile phone-based communication system that connects ministries of health and frontline health workers—to support health-sector communication in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak.The original version connected Liberia ' s health workforce information system,iHRIS, withRapidPro, a platform that delivers basic text and audio messages. Linking the two information systems made it easier to reach most Liberian frontline health workers who were using basic mobile phones.mHero distinguished itself from other digital health platforms by not being just another technology.Today mHero is a vital communication tool and health worker registry platform—for COVID-19 and other urgent health needs—that countries around the world are using to:Communicate both routine and urgent messages to health workersTarget messages to health workers based on cadre, location, or other demograp...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Digital Health Source Type: news