Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Trop Med Int Health. 2011 May;16(5):622-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011.02747.x. Epub 2011 Feb 22.
To analyse, on the basis of the literature, the potential of mobile phones to improve maternal health services in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC).
Wide search for scientific and grey literature using various terms linked to: maternal health, mobile telecommunication and LMIC. Applications requiring an internet connection were excluded as this is not widely available in LMIC yet.
Few projects exist in this field and little evidence is available as yet on the impact of mobile phones on the quality of maternal health services. Projects focus mainly on the delay in receiving care--that is in recognizing the need and making the decision to seek care--and the delay in arriving at the health facility. This is achieved by connecting lesser trained health workers to specialists and coordination of referrals. Ongoing projects focus on empowering women to seek health care.
There is broad agreement that access to communication is one of several essential components to improve maternal health services and hence the use of mobile phones has much potential. However, there is a need for robust evidence on constraints and impacts, especially when financial and human resources will be invested. Concurrently, other ways in which mobile phones can be used to benefit maternal health services need to be further explored, taking into consideration privacy and confidentiality.
基于文献分析手机在改善中低收入国家（LMIC）孕产妇卫生服务方面的潜力。
广泛搜索与孕产妇健康、移动电信和 LMIC 相关的各种术语的科学和灰色文献。排除需要互联网连接的应用程序，因为这在 LMIC 尚未广泛普及。
该领域的项目很少，目前关于手机对孕产妇卫生服务质量的影响的证据也很少。项目主要集中在接收护理的延迟上，即认识到需要并做出寻求护理的决定，以及到达卫生机构的延迟。这是通过将训练较少的卫生工作者与专家联系起来并协调转诊来实现的。正在进行的项目侧重于赋予妇女寻求医疗保健的权力。
人们普遍认为，获得通信是改善孕产妇卫生服务的几个基本组成部分之一，因此手机的使用具有很大的潜力。然而，需要有关于限制因素和影响的有力证据，特别是在投入财务和人力资源的情况下。同时，需要进一步探讨手机在改善孕产妇卫生服务方面的其他用途，同时考虑到隐私和保密性。
