Côte d’Ivoire expands digital health platform in Gontougo region

The Ivorian Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage has received a donation of 650 IT devices valued at 106 million FCFA to expand the mHealth.ci digital platform. The equipment, which includes 380 smartphones for community health workers and 270 tablets for supervisors, is intended for deployment in the Gontougo region in eastern Côte d’Ivoire.

To address electricity shortages in isolated rural areas, the devices are equipped with solar-rechargeable external batteries. The mHealth.ci platform, developed by Ticanalyse, serves as a clinical decision-support and health data collection tool. It assists community health workers in diagnosing childhood illnesses, recommending treatments, and alerting caregivers to emergency signs requiring evacuation. The system is designed to function offline, syncing data to the national base once a telecommunications signal is available.

The initiative is supported by the Mastercard Foundation, the Government of Canada, and UNICEF. This expansion follows a successful pilot phase in the Poro region and aims to improve healthcare access for the more than 900,000 residents of Gontougo, where medical infrastructure is currently limited.