Healthcare perspectives

This seminar will examine the notion that technologies can contribute to healthcare development initiatives in developing countries and explore the challenges associated with such approaches.

Speakers: Dr Niall Winters (London Knowledge Lab) and Marco Haenssgen (DPhil Candidate in International Development, University of Oxford)

Niall Winters will present his current ESRC/DFID-funded research (see: http://www.mchw.org) on the design and implementation of mobile learning interventions to support the training of healthcare workers in Kenya. He will discuss how the project has sought to determine how mobile technologies can help address the boundaries to participation in learning faced by healthcare workers and their trainers.

Marco’s presentation will shift the focus from health workers to the potential recipients of mobile-phone-based health services. Focusing on upstream elements of mHealth, Marco will explore patterns of mobile phone use and healthcare-seeking behaviour, drawing on fieldwork insights from rural India (Rajasthan) and China (Gansu). The evidence suggests that common assumptions of mHealth proponents are easily violated; that is, mobile phone ownership is not ubiquitous and does not necessarily reflect mobile phone use, people do not necessarily share mobile phones freely amongst each other, they are not necessarily keen and excited technological learners, and they do develop mobile phone-aided coping strategies that may compete with mhealth. While both contexts offer, at least in theory, the potential for mobile technology to break boundaries, the presentation will emphasise the importance of understanding upstream factors of mHealth before deploying technological solutions in order to provide effective solutions and to avoid the potential exacerbation of healthcare inequities.

This seminar forms part of the Breaking Boundaries series. The Breaking Boundaries seminar series brings together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to discuss the notion that information communication technologies can be used to break down boundaries to learning and participation in society.

View past talks, join the discussion, and follow our live stream on the day through our dedicated website – http://breakingboundariesoxford.org/