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Mobile Phones to Improve Health Outcomes

Mobile phone subscriptions now top six billion, with 76 percent of users living in the developing world. With the rapid growth of mobile phones in developing countries, there is an unprecedented opportunity to support health care providers and share lifesaving health information with isolated populations. Health projects can incorporate mobile phones in a range of promising applications: to deliver behavior change messages that improve awareness and reinforce healthy behaviors, to support health providers with portable tools, and to strengthen an organization’s management and systems. The SHOPS project has been a leader in designing and evaluating mobile applications to improve health.