M-health adoption and sustainability prognosis from a care givers’ and patients’ perspective

Abstract

The penetration of mobile phones and mobile technologies in developing countries has led to innovative developments of various m-Health applications. These applications have proven the potential of mobile technologies for improving the quality of health care service in general and the fight against HIV/AIDS in particular. However, to achieve greater impact on the ground level (e.g. in an antiretroviral (ARV) treatment clinic) in a developing country’s context, these applications have to be adopted and their utilization sustained. A study was undertaken to investigate sustainability and scalability challenges of mobile phone-based applications/projects for HIV/AIDS care in developing countries and the adoption and sustainability prospects of such m-Health applications in an ARV clinic in Pretoria. The findings presented here, are that from a care givers’ and patients’ perspective, adoption and sustainability of these applications is not merely dependent on the proposed technology’s capabilities to enhance service delivery. Adoption and sustainability is however, mostly dependant on: (1) the care givers and patients’ willingness and capability to incur any technological adoption and continuous use costs and, (2) their pre-conceived notions of government or sponsor-supported service provision.