Analyzing mHealth projects in developing countries

Abstract

The effective use of mobile IS offer great opportunities to overcome current challenges in developing countries. Despite the efforts of the WHO to implement a central database with mHealth applications, there is none which offers an overview over the respective applications. This is why we conducted a systematic literature study to give an overview of discussed mHealth projects in developing countries. Afterwards a classification of mHealth applications in types of service and types of technology as well as their project status is carried out. The high number of applications that have been applied in pilot projects or in practice is an indication of the broad support of mHealth applications in developing nations. However, most of the projects remain pilot projects or visions. Our contribution is, on the one hand, an overview of existing mHealth projects in developing countries and, on the other hand, the identification of key success factors for mHealth applications based on the literature to further guide health service researcher and practitioner to design and implement sustainable used applications in developing countries.