ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization has proposed the use of low-cost information and communication technology to improve the quality of service delivery and to build up health workers’ capacity especially at the primary health care level. The International Telecommunication Union has been piloting m-health for health system and workers development in developing countries since 2002, especially at the primary health care (PHC) level. Health systems in developing countries face the double burden of chronic and infectious diseases. Scarce financial resources, coupled with the brain drain, have led to the loss of mostly high- and medium-level health workers. The Hispano-American Health Linkprogramme commenced with a pilot project involving the deployment of 39 sets of m-health equipment to the health posts and centres within a district health system. The m-health projects were generally employed to extend essential PHC services to mostly rural communities previously without services.
