Mobile health applications for community health workers

This presentation will provide evidence and discuss lessons learned from the last five years of implementing CommCare, an open source mobile health tool for client tracking and case management, as well as the even greater possibilities expected from integrating CommCare with other mobile health tools in the MOTECH Suite. CommCare is being used to strengthen dozens of community health programs in over 25 countries including Afghanistan, Kenya, India, Mozambique, Nicaragua, United States, Tanzania, and Zambia. Dimagi's current partners include BBC WST, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, IntraHealth, JHPIEGO, Partners in Health, PATH, Pathfinder International, Save the Children, and World Vision. The talk will present evidence showing that a simple mHealth tool such as CommCare improves access, quality, experience, and accountability of care by community health workers in several low-and middle- income country settings. The session will also review success factors for where CommCare has been used most effectively and highlight the potential role of mobile health products as tools that can help people drive change in health systems. We will also describe the collaboration between Grameen Foundation and Dimagi on the MOTECH Suite which combines the mobile health platforms developed by both organizations.