28 September 2018
mHealth4Afrika results were very actively disseminated during the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) in New York from 25 - 28 September 2018:
The International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) provided a forum for academia, government, civil society, UN agencies, and the private sector to come together to share practical solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It brought together over 1,000 professionals from the private sector, academia, government, and civil society, along with graduate students.
As a result of participation in ICSD, the following paper was published: Cunningham, M., Cunningham, P. (2018) "mHealth4Afrika - Supporting Primary Healthcare Delivery in Resource Constrained Environments", Proceedings of 2018 International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD).
The IEEE Pre-conference Panel on Tuesday 25 September provided insights into Sustainable Development related activities being undertaken by IEEE Members. The panel included:
Each panelist provided a short case on Sustainable Development projects that they are currently involved in. Miriam Cunningham shared insights into mHealth4Afrika, which is co-designing a modular adaptable and extensible multilingual framework that integrates Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Record functionality with medical sensors and data visualisation tools.
The panelists also discussed: challenges and opportunities associated with implementing a co-design strategy and strengthening local capacity; technology adoption and how technologists, scientists and engineers contribute to sustainable development. The facilitated insights to be shared from mHealth4Afrika, IEEE standards committee, Smart Village and other ICT4Development projects. The panel was well attended with participants from more than 20 countries.
This session presented results from papers submitted under the Call for papers.
Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham provided insights into mHealth4Afrika objectives, how it is addressing Sustainable Developemnt Goal 3, the ongoing co-design process and system functionality. This was complimented by a video demonstration of the system functionality and an overview of lessons learnt. The presentation was very well recieved with plenty of questions on the approach taken.
Presentations included
The session room was full to capacity with participants from more than 20 countries.
This plenary panel focused on how to maximize the potential benefits of leveraging technology, innovation and standards while taking account of ethical considerations (including informed consent) and the potential impact on local socio-cultural norms. Click here to view the video of this plenary session.
Panelists included:
Each panelist provided insights into:
There was a very rich discussion that facilitated the participants to get insight into activities undertaken using technology in different ways depending on the intervention environment and requirements. Paul Cunningham shared insights from mHealth4Afrika as a case study.
This participatory workshop combined theory, practice, and working group collaboration. Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham, IIMC presented mHealth4Afrika as a case study highlighting how co-design was leveraged to contribute towards system iterations, functionality currently being evaluated and lessons learnt to date.