Ghana could be a good candidate for m-health services because of its large, medically underserved rural population and its uptake of mobile technology. The World Bank reports that Ghana had a rural population of nearly 44% in 2018. The ratio of doctors to patients in rural regions is about 1:18,257 compared to 1:4,099 in an urban region. In contrast to the scarcity of health personnel in rural Ghana, the country has the highest mobile penetration in West Africa and already outperforms many of its regional peers. By the end of 2019, mobile adoption stood at 55%, higher than the regional average of 44.8%. This means a huge number of rural people could receive digital services. In our study, we explored how mobile health could be used or improved as part of the effort to broaden access to maternal health care for rural Ghanaians.
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION