Leading Initiative of the mHealth Alliance Focuses on Improving Maternal and Newborn Health through Application of Innovative Mobile Technologies
Washington DC (March 24, 2011)—The mHealth Alliance today announced the appointment of Jennifer Potts, MPH, as Director of the Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative. In this role, Potts will help the mHealth Alliance leverage the growing reach of wireless technologies in the developing world and reduce maternal and newborn mortality through the power of modern information and communications technologies, or ICT, especially mobile.
The Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative (MMI) is working with HealthUnbound.org to create a dynamic online repository of maternal-newborn mHealth projects around the world, potentially reducing the fragmentation and duplication of efforts worldwide, promoting national scalability of existing pilot projects, and stimulating critical discussions regarding best practices in the maternal mHealth community.
The Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative and partners’ collaborative efforts will help to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5—to improve maternal-newborn and child health outcomes, and to help strengthen health systems overall.
“We are very pleased to bring Jennifer Potts on board to launch the Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative into a major force for delivering the promise of mobile technology in addressing some of the gravest maternal and newborn health challenges around the world,” said Rick Parnell, Chief Operating Officer of the United Nations Foundation, which hosts the mHealth Alliance. “Her expertise in building knowledge-sharing environments, as well as her extensive background in maternal and newborn health, makes her an outstanding addition to this team.”
“I am thrilled to apply my passion for maternal and newborn health with modern ICT to advance health systems and maternal and newborn health outcomes,” said Potts. “I look forward to working with the diverse groups that already are making valuable contributions in the field of maternal and newborn health.”
Jennifer Potts brings to the mHealth Alliance over 20 years of experience in the fields of reproductive and maternal health. She was previously Deputy Director for the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. This followed her tenure as the Director of International Programs at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and a long and effective history with Ipas focused on reducing maternal death in developing countries from unsafe abortions.
For more information about the Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative, please visit:http://mhealthalliance.org/content/maternal-newborn-mhealth-initiative-mmi
About the mHealth Alliance
The mHealth Alliance (mHA) mobilizes innovation to deliver quality health at the furthest reaches of wireless networks and mobile devices. Working with diverse partners, the mHA advances mHealth through research, advocacy, and support for the development of interoperable solutions and sustainable deployment models. The mHA sponsors innovation challenges and conferences, leads cross-sector mHealth initiatives, and hosts HUB (Health UnBound), a global online community for resource sharing and collaborative solution generation. Hosted by the United Nations Foundation, and founded by the UN, Rockefeller, and Vodafone Foundations, the mHA now also includes PEPFAR, HP, and the GSM Association among its founding partners. For more information, visit www.mhealthalliance.org
About the United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation, a public charity, was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. We build and implement public/private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and work to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. Through our campaigns and partnerships, we connect people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. These campaigns focus on reducing child mortality, empowering women and girls, creating a new energy future, securing peace and human rights, and promoting technology innovation to improve health outcomes. These solutions are helping the UN advance the eight global targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org
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