At last week’s mHealth Summit, leaders in government, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and academia came together to discuss and learn about the uses of mobile technology to improve the delivery of health services in the U.S. and abroad. Conference sessions focused on: examining the business, end-user, and policy perspectives of the field; promoting cross-cutting value chains and sustainable business models; and exploring the healthcare research and evaluation needs of mHealth.

I had the privilege of co-hosting a “reality booth” with Linda Raftree, supported by MCHIP via USAID and Plan International USA. The booth provided the summit’s attendees with a forum to discuss the realities of implementing mHealth projects – what they thought would happen, what actually happened, and how they responded.

To foster this dialogue, we had some of the most respected mHealth practitioners join us in running the booth, including Isaac Holeman, Heather LaGarde, David Isaak, David Cantor, Pamela Riley, and Neal Lesh. In addition, we heard from other attendees with a variety of mHealth backgrounds (working overseas as well as in the U.S.) who told us about the unanticipated challenges they faced when rolling out mHealth projects.

Among others, our guests included:

• Benjamin Mrema, Pathfinder International
• Atif Mumtaz, UM Healthcare
• David Isaak, SixBlue Data
• Pamela Riley, Abt Associates
• Dr. J Koku Awoonor-Williams, Ghana Health Service
• Allison Stone, MoTech
• Ryan Littman-Quinn, Botswana-UPenn Partnership
• Isaac Holeman, Medic Mobile
• Dr. Ousmane Ly, Agence Nationale de Télésanté et d'Informatique Médicale, Mali
• Mike McKay, RTI International
• Neil Landreville, Elmhurst Hospital
• Douglas Naegele, Infield Health
• Nate Barthel, Coded in Country
• Shawn Sarwar, VaxTrac
• David Cantor, ICF International/MCHIP
• Pertti Lounamaa, Pajat Management
• Heather Rosen, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/MCHIP

We caught their stories on video, and you can view them here. Many of the difficulties they encountered are problems that could easily arise in any program that incorporates mobile technology, so there’s much to be learned from the personal experiences of these practitioners.  I know I did, and hopefully you will too.

James BonTempo
Thought Leader, ICT4D, Jhpiego