LIVE FROM GSMA-mHA MOBILE HEALTH SUMMIT: Sean Blaschke, Technology for Development Specialist at UNICEF, talked up the need to ensure that the industry takes a holistic view of the platforms used to deliver services, in order to enable interoperability and remove potential bottlenecks. “It is really critical for anybody who is implementing a project to remember that we are not alone here, there are a lot of other people in this field, and it will continue to be that way. We have to figure out how we operate in an environment where we are not going to be the big fish,” he warned.

Blaschke highlighted observations from UNICEF’s work in Uganda to underline the problems. “In Uganda we have over 60 mHealth projects which I have been able to count in a very cursory exercise. Everything from monitoring disease outbreaks, sending lab results, to registering births and deaths. Many of which are re-creating, and re-recreating the wheel. Systems that are creating unique patient identifiers that clash with another system’s unique patient identifiers, and this other person’s unique identifiers,” he said.

In order to address these issues, Blaschke highlighted the benefits of open platforms, stating that “we are big proponents of open source systems, because it really does help with efforts to build interoperable solutions.” In addition, he said that while much of the focus has been on ownership of customer data, “ownership of systems is just as important.” He observed: “If I’m a ministry and I’m running a system providing antenatal services, and every time I want to change something I have to call in a programmer from New York to customise it, I see that as a problem.”

The need to future proof is also significant, with Blaschke suggesting the best option is to use whichever technology is appropriate now, but with the ability to evolve the platform as technology evolves. “We don’t want to develop systems for a single device, but systems that work across devices, so that when your community health worker’s phone is upgraded from a basic SMS device to one that can work with J2ME, to an Android phone, we don’t have to train them on a new system.”

However, technology should not be the most important part of a project, he observed, noting that “it really needs to be guided by the programmatic side.” When implemented, “we have an unprecedented opportunity to use data in real time to identify bottlenecks, use it for improved accountability, strengthening governance mechanisms, and actually address problems as they occur.”