The Fogarty International Center at NIH just updated their Strategic Plan to present ideas on how to advance global health research and how to continue investing in the changing global health landscape.
Four strategic goals are mentioned in the Plan. Goal 2 discusses the development and implementation of technologies needed to support ICT and to particularly encourage the development of mobile health technologies.
According to the Strategic Plan, the use of mobile health technologies has expanded exponentially around the world. Widespread access to cell phones has enabled healthcare providers to deliver information and services to larger and harder to reach populations.
To meet the needs for more and more mobile applications, The Strategic Plan points out that it will be critical to monitor how mobile applications are adapted and evaluated to ensure that they are effectively integrated into the practice of medicine, public health, and research.
The global health research community is looking for mobile tools to enhance research, transform epidemiological and surveillance research, and examine new ways that data can be collected and analyzed.
Mobile devices can be used to capture store, analyze, manage, and present data. The use of mobile technology can also create data platforms for new diagnostics and low-cost and real-time tools to track disease progression, movement, behavior, adherence to therapy, and to hazardous substances in the environment.
However, there is relatively little evidence linking improved health outcomes to mHealth interventions. According to the Strategic Plan, rigorous studies are needed to assess the health impact of mobile technologies and determine how they can be effectively scaled up in diverse, low resource settings.
Since the field is evolving so rapidly, new innovative and robust research methodologies are needed to swiftly evaluate mHealth interventions. The Strategic Plan suggests that research is needed to determine how to best integrate the use of mobile technologies into larger research and healthcare systems.
Implementation science remains a high priority for the Fogarty Center so that under the new plan proven interventions can be quickly adapted for use in low-resource settings and scaled up effectively. Increased efforts are also needed to catalyze partnerships and improve communication between the scientific community and program implementers so that science informs programs and policies.
Go to www.fic.nih.gov/About/Pages/Strategic-Plan.aspx to view the Strategic Plan published in April 2014.