Christine Hagar, Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science

Christine Hagar, a professor with the College of Applied Sciences and Arts’ School of Library and Information Sciences (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/) at San José State University, presented on the Mobile Health Information For All by 2015 project that is being led by the Health Information For All 2012-15 Challenge Working Group at a symposium in January.

At the BOBCATSSS conference (named for the nine universities involved in the first symposium in 1993,) Hagar presented on the need for everyone to have “healthcare knowledge and timely access to healthcare information to protect their own health and the health of others.” Hagar and the working group have proposed two stages to a project to increase access to healthcare knowledge, especially in low-income countries, with an emphasis on first aid, maternal and child health information. The group looked at existing frameworks for using mobile phones for providing health information in low-income countries with plans to provide consultation in the future.

With their preliminary findings, they have discovered that out of 1,500 mobile health projects or programs, only nine were found that provide residents in low-income countries with information to deal effectively with acute healthcare situations (see attached poster.)

Hagar worked with Heather Katzinel, a master of library sciences student, who worked as a research assistant during Fall 2013 to come up with the preliminary findings.

The HIFA2015 mission statement follows:

“By 2015, at least one telecoms provider, in at least one country, will endorse the vision of Health Information For All, and will provide free access to essential healthcare knowledge in the local language, preloaded on all new mobile phones they may sell and freely downloadable to all those who already have mobile phones.”

The HIFA2015 community involves more than 10,000 professionals in 167 countries, and includes health workers, publishers, librarians, information technologists, researchers, social scientists, journalists, policy-makers and others – working together towards a shared vision of a world where people are no longer dying or suffering as a result of lack of basic healthcare knowledge. HIFA2015 contributes to the broader goal of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/en/) “All people everywhere will have access to a skilled, motivated and supported health worker, within a robust health system.”

You can join HIFA2015 at
http://www.hifa2015.org/joinhifa

mHealth poster (PDF)

For news on the School of Library and Information Sciences research, visit http://slisapps.sjsu.edu/blogs/wp/ciri/.