A Context-Aware m-Health Application: Towards a Design Model for Developing Rural Areas

Abstract

Developing nations are turning to ICT4D with the aim of supporting development goals such as improving access to healthcare services. mHealth applications are the latest innovation to emerge from the field of ICT4D, apitalizing on the widely available and affordable mobile phone. The challenge that these applications have experienced so far is sustainability. Two reasons stand out as to why these applications do not survive in a developing context; 1) a lack of understanding of the developing context, and 2) a lack of Business Model perspective in the design of mHealth applications. The task of this research was to design a model that guides ICT4D designers in designing viable mHealth applications for developing rural areas. This task was achieved using rural development theory (the livelihood approach) to understand the developing country context. Business Model tooling (STOF) was used to design and evaluate a viable mHealth application in a developing country context. On one hand, Business Model tooling like STOF were created for profit-oriented mobile applications unlike mHealth applications which are development-oriented. Social Entrepreneurship (SE) on the other hand is an emerging field that provides Business Model guidelines and principles to create viable social development projects such as mHealth. SE guidelines were therefore adopted into the design and evaluation process of STOF. A mHealth application was designed, implemented and evaluated in a rural case study in Uganda using Action Design Research and Ethnography. The research identified variables that create value and rural characteristics that threaten value generation. These variables and characteristics make up the context-aware model for the design of mHealth applications

Key words: ICT4D, mHealth, STOF model, sustainability, development-oriented, Social Entrepreneurship