MOBILE HEALTH FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER PROGRAMS:
IMPLEMENTATION INSIGHTS ON CHW MANAGEMENT, CAPACITY BUILDING & TRAINING
Saturday, May 1, 3:30pm - 4:45pm Nye, Taubman Building
Summary
Too often, mobile technology (re)design and integration becomes the focus of mobile health projects, and the full potential of community health workers (CHWs) as agents is not realized. The purpose of the panel is to place CHW incentivization, motivation, empowerment, and ownership at the center of discussion regarding mHealth projects for CHW programs. From the technology perspective, mHealth interventions proceed in three distinct stages: 1) the mobile application / protocol design process; 2) the mobile application / protocol implementation process; and 3) the scale up process, including development of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. However, what does this process look like from a non-technology, or human perspective? Specifically, what role(s) do CHWs play in these 3 stages of the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation process? How can mHealth practitioners manage disruptions in CHW workflow and information flow effectively? What role does CHW capacity building and leadership development play in this process, outside of technical training?
Video
Moderator
Prabhjot Singh Dhadialla
directs the Program for Health Systems Development and Research at Columbia University's Earth Institute. In addition, he is the Community Health Worker/Health Systems advisor to the Millennium Villages Project, a partnership between the UNDP, 83 village communities in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries with a global support network. He has previously worked at the International Rescue Committee to ensure that "minimal indicators" about the health status of refugees could be systematically obtained to improve service in the 42 countries where they operate. He co-founded the non-profit Community Lab in 2009 to bring business-driven scalable solutions to low-resource environments. Prabhjot Singh has a PhD in Neural and Genetic Systems from Rockefeller University as part of the Tri-Institutional M.D./Ph.D. Program with Weill Cornell Medical College and is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Health and Economic Development at Columbia with Professor Jeffrey Sachs. He was raised in Kenya and lives in Manhattan.
Panelists
Jonathan Jackson
is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and system designer with extensive real-world experience in the design, development and deployment of technology solutions. He has built software systems and led development teams for a variety of projects in both developed and developing countries.
Since co-founding Dimagi, Jonathan has overseen the development of multiple innovative health projects, including SmartCare, the National HIV medical record systems in Zambia and CommCare, a mobile phone based system for community healthcare workers. Jonathan earned bachelors and masters degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Josh Nesbit
is the Executive Director of FrontlineSMS:Medic. His work as FrontlineSMS Ambassador is supported by the Open Society Institute and the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation. As an international health and bioethics student at Stanford, his qualitative research focused on access to pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment. Josh has implemented text message networks in Malawi, Haiti, Uganda, and Cameroon, advising ICT development projects in more than 15 countries. He is a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, Rainer Arnhold Fellow, Strauss Scholar, and Haas Public Service Fellow, and recently received the Truman Award from the Society for International Development.
Don Yansen,
COO and Co-founder of ClickDiagnostics, Inc. Is a serial entrepreneur most recently in the area of mHealth. He developed an entrepreneurial ecosystem program for Bangladesh working with BRAC University and several other NGOs. He worked with the Andean Development Bank-CAF on a program for stimulating entrepreneurial activities in the Andean countries. He has been founder and engineering director in a number of optical systems startups. Most recently in the areas of iris and retina/iris imaging, skin cancer imaging, micro fiber optics imaging. He has, also, been a mentor for teams in MIT's Media Lab Development Entrepreneurship course and a judge in the MIT 100K competition. He is an MIT alumnus.
