%0 Journal Article
%@ 2291-5222
%I JMIR Publications
%V 7
%N 8
%P e14668
%T The Elusive Path Toward Measuring Health Outcomes: Lessons Learned From a Pseudo-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Large-Scale Mobile Health Initiative
%A Mechael,Patricia
%A Kaonga,Nadi Nina
%A Chandrasekharan,Subhashini
%A Prakash,Muthu Perumal
%A Peter,Joanne
%A Ganju,Aakash
%A Murthy,Nirmala
%+ HealthEnabled, 4101 Albemarle St NW Apt 521, Washington, DC, 20016, United States, 1 9732228252, pmechael@gmail.com
%K India
%K mHealth
%K maternal health
%K child health
%K research
%D 2019
%7 21.08.2019
%9 Viewpoint
%J JMIR Mhealth Uhealth
%G English
%X Mobile health (mHealth) offers new opportunities to improve access to health services and health information. It also presents new challenges in evaluating its impact, particularly in linking the use of a technology intervention that aims to improve health behaviors with the health outcomes that are impacted by changed behaviors. The availability of data from a multitude of sources (paper-based and electronic) provides the conditions to facilitate making stronger connections between self-reported data and clinical outcomes. This commentary shares lessons and important considerations based on the experience of applying new research frameworks and incorporating maternal and child health records data into a pseudo-randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of mMitra, a stage-based voice messaging program to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes in urban slums in India.
%M 31436165
%R 10.2196/14668
%U http://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/8/e14668/
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/14668
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31436165