Design Principles for mHealth Application Development in Rural Parts of Developing Countries: The Case of Noncommunicable Diseases in Kenya

In this article, we first derive design principles for mHealth application development for rural parts of developing countries based on scientific literature and field studies. The design principles are then instantiated in a design science project focused on treating noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in rural parts of Kenya. Designing and implementing mobile health (mHealth) applications is a difficult task, and even more so when done in application domains such as rural parts of developing countries or low-resource communities. The resulting mHealth application assists community health workers (CHWs) in the recording of diabetic and hypertensive patients’ vital measurements. Additionally, in-person disease support communities for the patients and CHWs were formed, enhanced by an SMS-based community messaging feature to assist in increasing health-seeking behavior. The study's contribution is both the development of a functioning mobile application and collaborative socio-technical support community for patients as well as the development and instantiation of design principles for designing mHealth applications for rural parts of developing countries.