BACKGROUND In low-and-middle-income countries community health workers are the core component of the PHC system as they act as a liaison between the communities and the healthcare facilities. Evidence suggests that the services offered by these workers have helped in the decline of maternal and child morbidity and mortality rates and the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. However, the coverage and the overall progress towards achieving the SDG targets is very sluggish. The recent consensus concerning this current pace of progress, is that it relates to financial and human resources constraints. CHWs are overburdened as they are expected to accomplish more although they may not obtain the required support to perform their duties. The health systems of LMICs, have given very little attention to the work environment of CHWs; which has negatively affected CHWs productivity, and quality of services. This debate is intended to explore the potential of mobile phone technology in LMICs for improving CHWs performance and effectiveness. DISCUSSION To improve CHWs productivity, some studies involved the use of mobile phones for data collection and reporting, while other studies used mobile technology for patient to provider communication, patient education, CHWs supervision, and monitoring and evaluation. A wide range of benefits exists for using mobile phones including reduction in CHWs workload, improvement in data collection, reporting and monitoring, provision of quality healthcare services, supportive supervision, better organization of CHWs tasks and improvement in community health outcomes. However, a number of studies suggests that CHWs encounter unique challenges when adopting and using mobile health solutions for health service delivery such as, lack of CHWs training on new mHealth solutions, weak technical support, issues of internet connectivity and other administrative challenges. Future research efforts should be directed to explore health system readiness for adopting sustainable mHealth solutions to improve CHWs workflows in LMICs. CONCLUSION Future research efforts and policy dialogue should be directed to explore health system readiness for adopting sustainable mHealth solutions to improve CHWs workflows in LMICs.

中文翻译：

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在中低收入国家/地区使用手机改善社区卫生工作者的绩效。

背景技术在中低收入国家，社区卫生工作者是PHC系统的核心组成部分，因为它们充当社区与医疗机构之间的联络者。有证据表明，这些工人提供的服务有助于降低母婴发病率和死亡率以及传染性和非传染性疾病的负担。但是，实现可持续发展目标的范围和总体进展非常缓慢。最近关于这一当前进展速度的共识是，它与财政和人力资源限制有关。尽管可能无法获得所需的支持以执行其职责，但是CHW的负担过重，因为它们可能会完成更多任务。中低收入国家的卫生系统很少关注社区卫生工作者的工作环境；这对CHW的生产力和服务质量产生了负面影响。这场辩论旨在探讨LMIC中的移动电话技术在改善CHW性能和有效性方面的潜力。讨论为了提高CHW的生产率，一些研究涉及使用手机进行数据收集和报告，而另一些研究则使用移动技术进行患者与提供者之间的通信，患者教育，CHW监督以及监测和评估。使用移动电话具有多种好处，包括减少社区卫生工作者的工作量，改善数据收集，报告和监控，提供优质的医疗服务，支持性监督，更好地组织社区卫生工作者的任务以及改善社区健康状况。然而，大量研究表明，在采用和使用移动医疗解决方案提供医疗服务时，CHW面临独特的挑战，例如，CHW缺乏有关新mHealth解决方案的培训，技术支持薄弱，互联网连接问题以及其他管理挑战。未来的研究工作应针对探索卫生系统是否准备采用可持续的mHealth解决方案，以改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程。结论应该针对未来的研究工作和政策对话，以探索卫生系统为采用可持续的mHealth解决方案来改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程的准备情况。互联网连接问题和其他管理挑战。未来的研究工作应针对探索卫生系统为采用可持续的mHealth解决方案以改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程做好准备。结论应该针对未来的研究工作和政策对话，以探索卫生系统为采用可持续的mHealth解决方案来改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程的准备情况。互联网连接问题和其他管理挑战。未来的研究工作应针对探索卫生系统是否准备采用可持续的mHealth解决方案，以改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程。结论应该针对未来的研究工作和政策对话，以探索卫生系统为采用可持续的mHealth解决方案来改善LMIC中的CHW工作流程的准备情况。