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Global Digital Health Network M&E webinar

FHI Hosted Global Digital Health Network monthly event:

Dr. Garrett Mehl, WHO Scientist, WHO/UNF/JHU/NORAD: Global mhealth Toolkit for monitoring and evaluating Digital health interventions data collection, reporting to scientific community, systems and resources. This evolved from five year initiative with 26 organizations. Document was launched in March and components have been tested over 4 years. Recently in India, they've explored applied usages of tool components.

Smisha Agarwal, JHU, reviewed the mhealth evidence reporting and assessment (mERA) 16 item core checklist emanated from need for better evidence related to mhealth outcomes and key populations' needs; e.g., NCDs clinical effectiveness, data on elderly patients, chronic diease management. The mERA checklist defines determinants for mhealth interventions specifically vs other discipline specific checklists: what is the intervention, where implemented, and how implemented. The 29 item version focuses on methodology, and criteria examples include access of individual participants, cost assessment, adoption inputs/program entry, limitations delivery at scale, contextual adaptibility, replicability, data security, compliance nationally, and fidelity of the intevention. To date, a range of projects have incorporated the checklist but mainly in the north vs. Africa and SE Asia with exception of India. Now they are encoraging dissemination: http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.1174 and on Equator network.

Christine Lasway, Sr Tech Advisor, Palladium, Measuring User Engagement with the m4RH Service, using life cycle framework and metrics for Reproductive Health, with their SMS-based health communication program. Key to outcomes desired is deep user engagement vis a vis behavior change as indicators for success, and in this context, with an SMS messaging platform for reproductive health. User engagement across the lifecycle is core to goals fulfillment.Vanity metrics reflected user demographics and information access, rural vs.urban access, and related demographic analyses. Scale up stage data analyses led to refinement and modifications of messaging and metrics; e.g for youth users, faster information delivery, popularity of messages --methods for family planning. Retention, loyalty, churn and use are considered as system development evolves. FHI Hosted Global Digital Health Network monthly event