Be He@lthy, Be Mobile messaging for health programmes

The Be He@lthy, Be Mobile (BHBM) initiative is active in 7 countries from a range of regions and income levels, tackling issues as diverse as raising awareness on cervical cancer to helping people quit tobacco use. Currently we have reached almost 4 million citizens with SMS programs and over 25 million chatbot users with indispensable information on COVID-19.

As of February 2021, BHBM is supporting programmes in Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Philippines, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia. BHBM has historically also supported programmes in Zambia and Costa Rica and has worked closely with the governments of Norway and the United Kingdom in knowledge transfer and technical support.

Each country implements a different, adapted messaging for health programme, depending on the need and political will behind each disease or risk factor. Topics include raising awareness around diabetes and cervical cancer, as well as reducing risk factors such as tobacco use, healthy eating & physical activity.

The public-private partnership model between Ministries of Health and mobile network operators, pioneered by BHBM over the last several years, has proliferated in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, the infrastructure set up as a result of BHBM programming has been used to disseminate essential health information on the current COVID-19 pandemic in Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia, where COVID-19 messages reached over 10 million citizens. BHBM and WHO more widely are also working with UNICEF to extend this model to as many countries as possible in order to send reliable COVID-19 information from the Ministry of Health to the general public via SMS messages.

Promoting mRamadan in Tunisia

BHBM is supporting Burkina Faso implement an mHealth for Tobacco Cessation programme. The programme content has been adapted with end-users and with its strong support from the Ministry of Health, it is expected to be launched in early 2021. 

China is preparing to implement mTobaccoCessation programme using WeChat. BHBM and the China team conducted an orientation workshop in Beijing and developed a work plan, however coronavirus interrupted the launch. The program is expected to launch by mid-2021. 

Egypt carried out its first mDiabetes campaign between June - August 2019. SMS messages were sent to 330,000 participants. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Communications, and the top telecom operators in the country were engaged in program implementation. The 180-day pilot program for mTB-Tobacco was also carried out in Egypt in the second half of 2019. Evaluation reports have been delayed by coronavirus.

Launched in 2016 as part of the Prime Minister of India's Digital India program by the Ministry of Health, this programme delivers mTobaccoCessation and mDiabetes, reaching about 2.1 million users. The program has shown good results and is being scaled up to integrate other components such as a module on healthy aging and an mYoga app. 

The Philippines launched an mTobaccoCessation programme on a small scale in 2018. The programme is being planned to be relaunched in early 2021 through Messenger for Facebook. New modules on mHypertension, mDiabetes and potentially mental health are also being explored.

mRamadan, an SMS service implemented to support the prevention and management of diabetes during Ramadan successfully completed its 7th year, reaching close to 200,000 people. BHBM has engaged the WHO Regional and Country Offices to explore expanding Senegal's mHealth program to mDiabetes and beyond in the coming year in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and its new eHealth unit.

Sudan's national mDiabetes programme launched on 6 February 2020 and recruited 71,242 participants in its first two months. Its mRamadan campaign started immediately after the mDiabetes one, reaching the same cohort of users. Sudan will implement the mCervicalCancer programme also.

Ministry of Health, Tunisia, launched the national mDiabetes campaign on World Diabetes Day in 2019 with support from the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF). This programme consists of seasonal mRamadan and mHajj campaigns. The programs could not be implemented in 2020 due to the pandemic. Preparations are being made to re-launch the campaigns in Ramadan 2021. 

Zambia successfully implemented mCervical Cancer program with support from BHBM. The program was effective in reaching women and encouraging them to go for first time and follow-up screening. It is expected that the program will be restarted soon to expand from an information-based service to include other digital interventions through the continuum of care. 

COVID-19

BHBM is playing an active role in WHO's effort to convey reliable and evidence-based information through its public-facing communication channels. For example, BHBM leveraged existing mHealth infrastructure in Tunisia to reach 10 million people with important COVID-19 information. Also, BHBM is supporting the WHO Health Alert chatbot by managing the Messenger from Facebook channel.

Conversational agents

BHBM launched the WHO Health Alert on Messenger from Facebook: a conversational AI chatbot to support the COVID-19 response. Over 150 000 users have subscribed for localized daily COVID-19 alerts and more than a million people have been reached. You can access the service at: www.m.me/who

WHO has been working collaboratively across a number of departments to ensure that the WHO Health Alert service is also available on other channels:

• WhatsApp

https://wa.me/41798931892

• Viber

https://chats.viber.com/coronavirusinfo  

• Freebasics by Facebook

https://0.freebasics.com/s/1ROnQ4a2x1Q08BA