Adapting mHealth to Workflow - A Case Study in South Africa

Abstract

Community Health Workers (CHW) perform important healthcare and health promotion in many low and middle income countries. They are increasingly supported in their work by the use of mHealth. This study aims to explore how mHealth services can support the everyday work for CHWs when delivering home care in rural areas in South Africa. A single case study was performed, mapping CHWs workflow and investigating where and when CHW can be supported by mHealth services. Despite the very positive feedback from the CHWs and the fact that the studied mHealth solutions appears to support the majority of the important activities in the CHWs work process, the application is no longer in use. Financial and strategic decisions are behind the discontinuation of the project, further stressing the importance of taking all socio-technical dimensions into account when evaluating success or failure of implementation projects.

Keywords: Community Health Workers; Socio-Technical Systems; mHealth.