Browsing by Author "Labrique, Alain"
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- ItemForecasting the Value for Money of Mobile Maternal Health Information Messages on Improving Utilization of Maternal and Child Health Services in Gauteng, South Africa: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.(0000-00-00) Lefevre, Amnesty; Cabrera-Escobar, Maria A; Mohan, Diwakar; Eriksen, Jaran; Rogers, Debbie; Neo Parsons, Annie; Barre, Iman; Jo, Youngji; Labrique, Alain; Coleman, JesseBACKGROUND Limited evidence exists on the value for money of mHealth information programs in low resource settings OBJECTIVE This study sought to model the incremental cost effectiveness of gradually scaling up text messaging services to pregnant women throughout Gauteng province South Africa from 2012 to 2017 METHODS Data collection occurred as part of a retrospective study in 6 health centers in Gauteng province Stage based short message service SMS text messages on maternal health were sent to pregnant women twice per week during pregnancy and continued until the infant s first birthday Program costs incremental costs to users and the health system costs for these women were measured along with changes in the utilization of antenatal care visits and childhood immunizations and compared with those from a control group of pregnant women who received no SMS text messages Incremental changes in utilization were entered into the Lives Saved Tool and used to forecast lives saved and disability adjusted life years DALYs averted by scaling up program activities over 5 years to reach 60 of pregnant women across Gauteng province Uncertainty was characterized using one way and probabilistic uncertainty analyses RESULTS Five year program costs were estimated to be US 1 2 million 17 of which were incurred by costs on program development and 31 on SMS text message delivery costs Costs to users were US 1 66 to attend clinic based services nearly 90 of which was attributed to wages lost Costs to the health system included provider time costs to register users US 0 08 and to provide antenatal care US 4 36 and postnatal care US 3 08 services Incremental costs per DALY averted from a societal perspective ranged from US 1985 in the first year of implementation to US 200 in the 5th year At a willingness to pay threshold of US 2000 the project had a 40 probability of being cost effective in year 1 versus 100 in all years thereafter CONCLUSIONS Study findings suggest that delivering SMS text messages on maternal health information to pregnant and postpartum women may be a cost effective strategy for bolstering antenatal care and childhood immunizations even at very small margins of coverage increases Primary data obtained prospectively as part of more rigorous study designs are needed to validate modeled results
- ItemH_pe for mHealth: more "y" or "o" on the horizon?(2013-04-30) Labrique, Alain; Vasudevan, Lavanya; Chang, Larry William; Mehl, GarrettOBJECTIVE Efforts in the domain of mobile health or mHealth have been criticized for the unfettered proliferation of pilots and a lack of a rigorous evidence base to support these strategies In this letter we present the response of a group of researchers in the mHealth community to the recent calls for evidence issued by global health and funding agencies We support our conclusions through a summary of the numerous ongoing mHealth studies listed in the US federal clinical trial registry METHODS We conducted a search on the US federal clinicaltrials gov database using the keywords mHealth mobile or cell AND phone to obtain 1678 results of studies We manually inspected each result to check if it fit the purview of an mHealth study Studies that were terminated or withdrawn prior to submission were excluded RESULTS We identified 215 unique mHealth studies that were registered in the clinicaltrials gov database of which 8 4 n 18 were observational in nature while the remaining 91 6 n 197 were interventional Of the 215 studies 81 8 n 176 studies used a classical randomized trial design and 40 new studies were added to the database between May and November 2012 alone Based on these results we posit that the field is entering a new era where a body of rigorous evaluation of mHealth strategies is rapidly accumulating CONCLUSIONS The transition into an era of evidence based mHealth supports our position that innovation in this domain can be evaluated with the same rigor as other public health strategies attenuating some of the hype previously associated with mHealth
- ItemMobile phones and social structures: an exploration of a closed user group in rural Ghana.(2013-11-15) Kaonga, Nadi Nina; Labrique, Alain; Mechael, Patricia; Akosah, Eric; Ohemeng-Dapaah, Seth; Baah, Joseph Sakyi; Kodie, Richmond; Kanter, Andrew S; Levine, OrinBACKGROUND In the Millennium Villages Project site of Bonsaaso Ghana the Health Team is using a mobile phone closed user group to place calls amongst one another at no cost METHODS In order to determine the utilization and acceptability of the closed user group amongst users social network analysis and qualitative methods were used Key informants were identified and interviewed The key informants also kept prospective call journals Billing statements and de identified call data from the closed user group were used to generate data for analyzing the social structure revealed by the network traffic RESULTS The majority of communication within the closed user group was personal and not for professional purposes The members of the CUG felt that the group improved their efficiency at work CONCLUSIONS The methods used present an interesting way to investigate the social structure surrounding communication via mobile phones In addition the benefits identified from the exploration of this closed user group make a case for supporting mobile phone closed user groups amongst professional groups
- ItemNewborn health on the line: the potential mHealth applications.(2014-07-16) Agarwal, Smisha; Labrique, Alain
- ItemPrioritizing integrated mHealth strategies for universal health coverage.(2014-09-12) Mehl, Garrett; Labrique, AlainAs countries strive toward universal health coverage mobile wireless technologies mHealth tools in support of enumeration registration unique identification and maintenance of health records will facilitate improved health system performance Electronic forms and registry systems will enable routine monitoring of the coverage of essential interventions for individuals within relevant target populations A cascading model is presented for prioritizing and operationalizing the role of integrated mHealth strategies
- ItemUsing social networking to understand social networks: analysis of a mobile phone closed user group used by a Ghanaian health team.(2013-04-04) Kaonga, Nadi Nina; Labrique, Alain; Mechael, Patricia; Akosah, Eric; Ohemeng-Dapaah, Seth; Sakyi Baah, Joseph; Kodie, Richmond; Kanter, Andrew S; Levine, OrinBACKGROUND The network structure of an organization influences how well or poorly an organization communicates and manages its resources In the Millennium Villages Project site in Bonsaaso Ghana a mobile phone closed user group has been introduced for use by the Bonsaaso Millennium Villages Project Health Team and other key individuals No assessment on the benefits or barriers of the use of the closed user group had been carried out OBJECTIVE The purpose of this research was to make the case for the use of social network analysis methods to be applied in health systems research specifically related to mobile health METHODS This study used mobile phone voice records of conducted interviews with and reviewed call journals kept by a mobile phone closed user group consisting of the Bonsaaso Millennium Villages Project Health Team Social network analysis methodology complemented by a qualitative component was used Monthly voice data of the closed user group from Airtel Bharti Ghana were analyzed using UCINET and visual depictions of the network were created using NetDraw Interviews and call journals kept by informants were analyzed using NVivo RESULTS The methodology was successful in helping identify effective organizational structure Members of the Health Management Team were the more central players in the network rather than the Community Health Nurses who might have been expected to be central CONCLUSIONS Social network analysis methodology can be used to determine the most productive structure for an organization or team identify gaps in communication identify key actors with greatest influence and more In conclusion this methodology can be a useful analytical tool especially in the context of mobile health health services and operational and managerial research