cell phones

For more than a decade, health teams in over 40 countries have improved their performance using MSH’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) and the latest version, Leadership Development Program Plus (LDP+), which improves public health impact and scale-up. During the same period, there has been a tremendous expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in health and mHealth interventions, particularly using mobile devices. This past year, two MSH-led projects—the Prevention Organizational Systems AIDS Care and Treatment (Pro-ACT) project in Nigeria and The Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project—collaborated with LMG partner Medic Mobile to pair the LDP+ with a mobile application to systematically capture, collate, and report LDP+ results in near-real-time.

Cross-posted from the K4Health Blog.

The overhead lights dim and in the dark, the high-spirited rhythm and melodic line of a Malawian song rises and overtakes the quiet buzz of conversation. We are seated in a large auditorium at the International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar, Senegal and watching the first film focused on the K4Health Malawi project in a festival hosted by Population Services International (PSI).

The film festival is a rich visual and audio break in an intense day filled with technical presentations and serious conversations about what works in programs that promote reproductive health and family planning.

This blog post originally appeared on K4Health's blog.

The most important item in Amon Chimphepo’s medical kit is a small cell phone. This single piece of technology has proved to be a lifeline for people living in one of the most remote regions of Malawi. Its power to reach and initiate help immediately from the closest hospital is saving lives and improving health outcomes. In fact, I met a woman, alive today, because Mr. Chimphepo and his cell phone were there to make an emergency call to the district hospital and get an ambulance.