Blog: Global Health

Last month, I spent 10 days zigzagging across India, stopping in six cities on an unforgettable journey to visit the sites of several projects that the mHealth Alliance supports through our Innovation Working Group catalytic grant program.

Through this program, which is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, we provide funding and technical assistance for mobile health (mHealth) projects that aim to improve maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries. This trip gave us the chance to see some of their work in action.

This week, thousands of researchers, development experts, policymakers, and others are gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss one of the most important global issues: family planning.

Around the world, more than 220 million women want, but don’t have access to, modern contraception – which means they aren’t able to decide the timing and spacing of their families. Denying them this basic human right has far-reaching effects for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.

November 12th is World Pneumonia Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about this disease. Here are 7 reasons why you should care (and take action).

Mobile phones are more than just communications devices; they are also powerful tools to improve health care. Since 2012, TechChange and the mHealth Alliance have offered a four-week online certificate course in mHealth: Mobile Phones for Public Health.

I was saddened to learn yesterday of a tragic development in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria. The World Health Organization reports that polio, a crippling and often deadly virus, has resurfaced 14 years after being driven from the country.

Nearly 20 years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. Today, according to WHO’s 2013 Global TB report, much progress has been made toward the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG 6) of reducing the spread of TB, although there is much more work to be done.

A recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa serves as a reminder that this crippling disease still exists and is actively threatening children. While there is no cure for polio, vaccines protect children from the disease for life.

Mobile health (mHealth) is a solution for women – providing immediate, lifesaving services to address dire maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) challenges. This emerging field – a global movement – is reaching mothers, who need health services the most.

Growing up, my parents worried that I would tumble and break my arm or suffocate when I fell asleep in my mashed potatoes (true story); they never had to worry that I would contract measles because we had easy access to vaccines.

Women in the U.S. and around the world lost an unwavering champion back in June. Today, the United Nations Foundation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are honoring the life and legacy of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg with the third annual International Family Planning Hero Award.