Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are unlikely to be met in most low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Smartphones\r\nand smartphone proxy systems using simpler phones, equipped with the capabilities to identify location/time and link to the web,\r\nare increasingly available and likely to provide an excellent platform to support healthcare self-management, delivery, quality,\r\nand supervision. Smart phones allow information to be delivered by voice, texts, pictures, and videos as well as be triggered\r\nby location and date. Prompts and reminders, as well as real-time monitoring, can improve quality of health care. We propose a\r\nthree-tier model for designing platforms for both professional and paraprofessional health providers and families: (1) foundational\r\nfunctions (informing, training, monitoring, shaping, supporting, and linking to care); (2) content-specific targets (e.g., for MDG;\r\ndevelopmentally related tasks); (3) local cultural adaptations (e.g., language). We utilize the Maternal and Child Health (MCH)\r\nMDG in order to demonstrate how the existing literature can be organized and leveraged on open-source platforms and provide\r\nexamples using our own experience in Africa over the last 8 years.
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