Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25881735›Full record

SynthesisTropical medicine & international health : TM & IH2015

Evidence on feasibility and effective use of mHealth strategies by frontline health workers in developing countries: systematic review.

Smisha Agarwal, Henry B Perry, Lesley-Anne Long, Alain B Labrique

Registry-linked trialAbstract readEvaluation StudySystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05533736 (Feasibility and Usability of Mobile Applications for Monitoring Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Treatment in Colombia), which is not on this map. Cited by 243 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
243citing papers in PubMed, 11 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT05533736 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2020, after this paper: background citation

Feasibility and Usability of Mobile Applications for Monitoring Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Treatment in Colombia: 2019-2021

TypeinterventionalSponsorCentro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones MédicasRan2020 to 2021Enrolled105ConditionsCutaneous Leishmaniasis, AmericanArmsCommunity based strategy to follow-up pactientes with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

243 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  10. Strengthening Delivery of Health Services Using Digital Devices.Global health, science and practice · 2018
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183 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Smisha AgarwalDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Henry B PerryDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Lesley-Anne LongmPowering Frontline Health Workers, mPowering Frontline Health Workers, Washington, D.C.
Alain B LabriqueDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesGiven the large-scale adoption and deployment of mobile phones by health services and frontline health workers (FHW), we aimed to review and synthesise the evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of mobile-based services for healthcare delivery.

methodsFive databases - MEDLINE, EMBASE, Global Health, Google Scholar and Scopus - were systematically searched for relevant peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2013. Data were extracted and synthesised across three themes as follows: feasibility of use of mobile tools by FHWs, training required for adoption of mobile tools and effectiveness of such interventions.

resultsForty-two studies were included in this review. With adequate training, FHWs were able to use mobile phones to enhance various aspects of their work activities. Training of FHWs to use mobile phones for healthcare delivery ranged from a few hours to about 1 week. Five key thematic areas for the use of mobile phones by FHWs were identified as follows: data collection and reporting, training and decision support, emergency referrals, work planning through alerts and reminders, and improved supervision of and communication between healthcare workers. Findings suggest that mobile based data collection improves promptness of data collection, reduces error rates and improves data completeness. Two methodologically robust studies suggest that regular access to health information via SMS or mobile-based decision-support systems may improve the adherence of the FHWs to treatment algorithms. The evidence on the effectiveness of the other approaches was largely descriptive and inconclusive.

conclusionsUse of mHealth strategies by FHWs might offer some promising approaches to improving healthcare delivery; however, the evidence on the effectiveness of such strategies on healthcare outcomes is insufficient.

Indexed as

Cell PhoneCommunity Health ServicesDeveloping CountriesTelemedicineText MessagingDecision Support Systems, ClinicalDelivery of Health CareHealth PersonnelHumansagents de santé communautairescommunity health workershealth personnelmHealthmobile healthpersonal sanitariopersonnel de santésalud móvilsanté mobiletrabajadores sanitarios comunitarios

Identifiers

PMID25881735
PMCPMC4692099

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.