0579-03 SMSbebe SMS-based technology for early brain development support and monitoring
Project Lead(s): Michael Kapps, Juliano Froehner
The lack of information flow from care providers to parents and vice versa in Brazil remains a systemic problem in the management of early childhood development. There is still a huge gap in parental knowledge of best practices; information is not targeted for recipient populations and feedback to care providers is missing. These communication issues prevent parents from having the tools to ensure the best brain development for their children, while care providers struggle with the timely identification of developmental challenges.
This innovation answers the need for a scalable communication solution. Tá.Na.Hora Digital Health has developed an SMS message approach that allows for highly-customized, interactive engagement on early child development. These programs would initially provide valuable information to new mothers, send reminders, track development milestones of the child and help manage development of at-risk children. This financially sustainable approach taps into the high cell phone permeation in Brazil and the ubiquitous nature of SMS communication.
