Our work

The use of mobile and wireless technologies has the potential to transform the face of health service delivery across the globe. There are reportedly more than 7 billion mobile telephone subscriptions across the world, over 70% of which are in low- or middle- income countries. In many places, people are more likely to have access to a mobile telephone than to clean water. As a global society, we are also facing a looming threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which kill 41 million people each year, around 71% of all deaths.

To address this challenge, the Be He@lthy, Be Mobile (BHBM) initiative was set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication union (ITU) in 2012. BHBM works with governments to scale up mHealth services for NCDs and their risk factors. Millions of people have already been reached through the programmes and evaluation shows that they are impacting positively on users’ health.

The approach is deliberately designed to be scalable: instead of promoting specific products, it provides cross-cutting health content and technical support which can be used and incorporated into other applications.

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Publications

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Competency frameworks and standards for digital health: a landscape analysis

This report analyses the landscape of digital health competency frameworks and standards developed to strengthen health workforce education and practice...

Artificial intelligence and evidence-informed policy: emerging challenges and opportunities: discussion paper

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping evidence-informed policy-making (EIP) in health by enabling faster analysis, synthesis and use of...

Scaling innovations in public health systems: guidance and toolkit

The World Health Organization guidance and toolkit for scaling innovations in public health systems offer an evidence-based, practical framework to assist...