Papers by Brendon Wolff-Piggott
The Challenge of “Informal mHealth” and Community Health Worker Practices
22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, 2020
The technology of mHealth is often presented as a solution to improve health care for underserved... more The technology of mHealth is often presented as a solution to improve health care for underserved populations, through empowering and improving the efficiency of work flows for health care staff, particularly in developing countries. mHealth has frequently been implemented as part of small-scale projects, so increasing the coverage of mHealth through scaling up has been posed as a logical way to improve the situation. The phenomenon of “informal mHealth” challenges this paradigm: recent research has identified that community health care workers are helping patients using their own mobile phones in the absence of any formal mHealth initiatives, drawing on their own airtime (credit) and time to do so. A close reading of prior empirical research reveals that similar behavior of going “above and beyond” the formal requirements of an mHealth project is not unusual, even though it has received little direct attention. This research draws on a rereading of the mHealth literature to inform reflection on field work in a successful, large-scale mHealth project to argue that “formal” and “informal” mHealth are not easily separated out. This raises important challenges for understanding and practice; notably that some core concepts in the field such as “adoption” and “resistance” need to be reconsidered in order to design effectively and with due regard for the lived experiences and practices of community health workers.
Information Technology for Development, 2017
This exploratory investigation presents a case study of the deployment of an mHealth service in e... more This exploratory investigation presents a case study of the deployment of an mHealth service in established public clinics, and assesses the findings using Activity Theory. We contribute to the limited empirical research on mHealth implementation in established public facilities, and build on work on the use of Activity Theory to frame investigations of ICT4D interventions. The study investigates the perspective of clinic staff responsible for registering women for a free maternal health messaging service. Open-ended interviews and observation sessions were used to reveal staff experiences of the implementation, and their work practices. Activity Theory analysis was adopted to help interpret the data, and identify likely dynamics leading to these specific practices. Some themes that emerged were the hierarchical nature of the medical profession and implications for task shifting, the influence of technical design choices on use patterns and issues arising from the developing-country context.
Faculty of Commerce, 2020
A Review of SDI Literature: Searching for Signs of Inverse Infrastructures
Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2015
Demonstrating the potential of GIS technology in hydrosalinity modelling through interfacing the DISA model and a GIS. Report to the Water Research Commission. Pretoria. South Africa
There is a substantial body of research on mHealth interventions in low-resource settings, but li... more There is a substantial body of research on mHealth interventions in low-resource settings, but little empirical understanding of use by staff in established health facilities. What evidence there is indicates divergent outcomes. In order to generate insight into this phenomenon we undertake an exploratory study of mHealth use in several public clinics, where the staff are required to perform a simple registration process for the MomConnect system. We draw on the lenses of Activity Theory and affordance actualisation to assist in the analysis of the evidence collected, and find that professional identities, local priorities and technology features all interact in shaping the forms that mHealth use takes in practice. Based on this analysis we propose a set of higher-level concepts in order to compare case studies of mHealth use. This research contributes to theory by proposing a framework for understanding mHealth use in existing facilities, with specific reference to low-resources settings. In addition we contribute to the literature on conceptualising affordance actualisation, drawing on Activity Theory. Finally, we inform practitioners by outlining important constraints that impede staff as they strive to accommodate this additional burden in their daily routines.
Coupling geographical information systems and catchment hydrological models. Unpublished MSc (Geography)
Demonstrating the potential of GIS technology in hydrosalinity modelling through interfacing the DISA model and a GIS. Report to the Water Research Commission. Pretoria. South Africa.
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Papers by Brendon Wolff-Piggott