Abstract
Aim:The study reviewed literature for mobile technology (mHealth) usage by frontline healthcare providers (HcPs) in SSA to explore opportunities and constraints for improving health outcomes.
Background:Resource-constrained countries engage the services of HcPs as conduits of healthcare service between the health centre and the clients. Despite the increasing number of health mHealth tools that have been developed to support HcPs, few of these applications have been rigorously evaluated and even fewer have been brought to scale to improve health outcomes.
Methods:The study did a narrative review of 24 peer-reviewed literature (in English) 2000 to 2018 from health, social science, and computer engineering databases, using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement guidelines.
Results:HcPs in SSA have used mHealth with encouraging health outcomes particularly in sexual and reproductive health including HIV. Literature reviewed that projects are mostly concentrating on improving health governance, learning and implementation of health benchmarks and guidelines. Of the researches that evaluated program outcomes, evidence is that mHealth is handy to HcP in improving quality of healthcare, program monitoring capacity and improved service efficiency.
Conclusion:Evidence from grey literature suggests encouraging opportunities for use of mHealth to improve the quality of health outcomes. A positive trend towards using mHealth that lead to positive health and programming outcomes through operational improvements and innovative intervention designs has been observed. However, SSA leaders need to address programmatic and research gaps as they advance the use and assessment of mobile technology tools for HcPs.