An Innovative Mobile Technology Intervention for Maternal and Child Health Care in Cambodia

Summary

The Innovative Mobile Technology for Maternal and Child Health Care (i-MoMCARE) project is a digital health intervention aiming to increase the coverage of and access to maternal and child health (MCH) services for pregnant women and their babies in rural communities in Cambodia. We will fully adopt an innovative model (ImTeCHO) developed, successfully implemented, and evaluated by Society for Education, Welfare and Action-Rural (SEWA Rural) in Gujarat, India. This study will take advantage of Cambodia's well-structured healthcare system, increased internet coverage, and the sharp rise in smartphone adoption to implement innovative mobile technology intervention.

i-MoMCARE will provide village health support groups (VHSGs) access and training in mobile-based job aid (mobile apps) to facilitate their work with pregnant women and mothers in the villages. Using mobile apps, VHSGs can register pregnant women and mothers, (re)schedule health care appointments, develop a digital record of the medical history of pregnant women and mothers, show educational videos to pregnant women and mothers, and alert health center staff on high-risk cases. i-MoMCARE will also offer health center staff access to the web interface where they can do longitudinal tracking of VHSGs' log-in rate, track the medical history of patients, and screen for complications and referrals.

In Cambodia, long distances to health facilities and inadequate education for women of reproductive age are among the determinants of poor health outcomes, predominantly in rural communities, where the demand for MCH services is high. VHSGs could help overcome the long distance to health facilities with mobile technology. i-MoMCARE could also improve women's understanding of the importance of regular antenatal and postnatal utilization and vaccination and, by extension, reduce high-risk cases and maternal and child deaths. This study is the first to be implemented in Cambodia, contributing to the use of digital health in MCH interventions, which remain in their infancy.

Conditions

• Maternal and Child Health

Interventions

DEVICE

Web interface for health center staff and mobile application on smart phones for village health volunteers

The designated health center staff will receive a web interface that will allow them to offer job aid for supervision, including real-time information about VHSGs' performance in the form of process indicators and coverage of MCH services. The tool will also support health center staff in their daily tasks, such as high-risk patient tracking, low-supply-inventory alerts, supply chain management, electronic health records, vital events tracking, and automatic calculation of performance-based incentives and motivation for VHSGs. The mobile application will be offered to two female VHSGs from each of the 200 villages connected to their respective health centers in the intervention arm. The mobile application will provide job aid to VHSGs for scheduling home visit tasks, including ANC, home-based newborn care, reporting outcomes of pregnancies, and follow-up visits of complicated cases.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Saglik Bilimleri Universitesi

  collaborator OTHER

• National University of Singapore

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Siyan Yi, PhD · National University of Singapore

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-01

Primary Completion

2024-12-31

Completion

2024-12-31

Countries

• Cambodia

Study Locations