Global Health Information Technology Solutions for a Community Health Innovation Framework

With an increasingly connected world, information technologies can be used to offer many solutions to global health challenges. In low- and middle-income countries Community Health Workers (CHW) are an important provider of healthcare, however, they often lack access to adequate technologies, low-cost training, and networking opportunities. To address these challenges, the authors explain the Community Health Innovator Program (CHIP) framework, which facilitates local innovation to improve health behaviors, and the use of a Web-based portal to support its work. This paper details the growing use of low-cost social media technologies in healthcare and the development of the specific CHIP Web site prototype. The authors further discuss the potential for expansion of the CHIP model and associated IT solutions for increasing vaccine up-take in low- and middle-income regions, as well as how these technologies can effectively respond to other priority challenges in global health.