Centre for Demographic Studies in the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
J Midwifery Womens Health. 2013 Jan-Feb;58(1):76-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1542-2011.2012.00243.x. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
The use of mobile phones has grown exponentially in the last decade including in some of the most remote and low-resource regions of the world. With the geographic expansion of mobile phone use, information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) was born, and innovative uses for mobile technologies in various fields including health care have emerged. This use of mobile technology in health care is known as mHealth. mHealth interventions are being used internationally to improve maternal and child health. Be it the use of a mobile phone to call for emergency transport, remote consultation, or large-scale short message service (SMS)-based community education programs, mHealth is demonstrating its utility in reproductive health programs throughout the world. This article describes the evolution and challenges of mHealth, discusses the role of mHealth in achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, and addresses the potential impact of mHealth for midwives. mHealth represents a new area of global health that warrants the attention of midwifery advocates. Midwifery leadership in the field of mHealth at this early stage of its development will ensure future health programming that is relevant to the needs of women and the midwives who care for them.
在过去的十年中，手机的使用呈指数级增长，包括在世界上一些最偏远和资源匮乏的地区。随着手机使用的地理扩张，信息和通信技术促进发展（ICT4D）应运而生，移动技术在医疗保健等各个领域的创新应用也层出不穷。这种在医疗保健中使用移动技术被称为移动医疗。移动医疗干预措施正在国际上被用于改善母婴健康。无论是使用手机呼叫紧急交通、远程咨询，还是大规模的基于短信服务（SMS）的社区教育计划，移动医疗都在展示其在世界各地生殖健康项目中的实用性。本文描述了移动医疗的演变和挑战，讨论了移动医疗在实现千年发展目标 4 和 5 中的作用，并探讨了移动医疗对助产士的潜在影响。移动医疗代表了全球健康的一个新领域，值得助产士倡导者关注。在移动医疗发展的早期阶段，助产士在该领域的领导地位将确保未来的卫生规划能够满足妇女和照顾她们的助产士的需求。
