Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Research Interests
Her research interests include gender, digital determinants of health, digital health, AI, equity, and research methods for the evaluation of digital health interventions and enablers.
Experiences & Accomplishments
Nearly 30 years of digitally transformative public health movements with a targeted focus on defining and building the field of mHealth and leveraging, evaluating effective use, and facilitating national and sub-national digital health strategies and policies in over 40 low and middle-income countries. Dr. Mechael is a Senior Associate in the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Co-Principal Investigator on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Digital Health Exemplars. She is also co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at health.enabled and serves as technical lead for the Global Digital Health Monitor, a web-based platform to measure and monitor digital health enablers at the country level. She has led new efforts in digital determinants of health, personal connected health, and digital therapeutics exploring the use of digital technology for health in every day life and the strategic adoption of wearables, remote patient monitoring, and artificial intelligence alongside genomics to enable people to engage more effectively in their health through technology. She serves on the editorial board of Journal of Medical Internet Research and the Oxford Digital Health Journal and is co-editor of mHealth in Practice: Mobile technology for health promotion in the developing world. She's the award-winning best-selling author of the middle-grade fiction novel, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution, which she wrote in collaboration with my 10-year-old son. Awards include: Dragonfly Awards- First Place, Green Book/ Environmental; Second Place, Global and Social Issues; Honorary Mention, Middle-Grade Fiction & STEM; Bookfest Award, First Place, Juvenile Fiction/Social Issues & Juvenile Fiction/ Science and Nature; Literary Titan Five Star Gold Award; and Reading with Your Kids Certified Great Read.
Honors & Awards
Johns Hopkins University Knowledge for the World Distinguished Alumnus Awardee (2011)
Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship (2015)
British Council UK Education Social Impact Award (2016)
Excellence in Teaching Award at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2023)
Select Publications
Over 100 publications, ranging from m and eHealth to broader global health issues, including reproductive health and primary health care- the most noteworthy are as follows. A complete list is available upon request.
Chaney S, Mechael P, So Many Choices, How Do I Choose? Considerations for Selecting Digital Health Interventions to Support Immunization Confidence and Demand; J Med Internet Res 2023; 25:e47713; URL: https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e47713; DOI: 10.2196/47713
Philbrick, W., Milnor, J., Deshmukh, M., & Mechael, P. (2022). Information and communications technology use to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence in low- and middle-income countries: An evidence and gap map. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 18, e1277. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1277.
Chaney SC, Mechael P, Thu NM, Diallo MS, Gachen C. (2021) Every Child on the Map: A Theory of Change Framework for Improving Childhood Immunization Coverage and Equity Using Geospatial Data and Technologies J Med Internet Res 2021;23(8):e29759
Jusril H, Ariawan I, Damayanti R, et al (2020) Digital health for real-time monitoring of a national immunisation campaign in Indonesia: a large-scale effectiveness evaluation BMJ Open10:e038282. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038282
Murthy, N., Chandrasekharan, S., Prakash, M. et al. (2020) Effects of an mHealth voice message service (mMitra) on maternal health knowledge and practices of low-income women in India: findings from a pseudo-randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health 20, 820. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08965-2
Murthy, N et al (2019) The Impact of an mHealth Voice Message Service (mMitra) on Infant Care Knowledge, and Practices Among Low-Income Women in India: Findings from a Pseudo-Randomized Controlled Trial; Maternal and Child Health Journal.
Mechael, P. et al (2019) The Elusive Path Toward Measuring Health Outcomes: Lessons Learned from a Pseudo-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Large-Scale Mobile Health Initiative; JMIR mHealth and uHealth.
Mechael, P & Moon, P (2019) Digital selfcare must be approached by the health sector with eyes wide open. BMJ Opinion.
Mechael, P & Ke Edelman, J (2019) State of Digital Health Report 2019. Global Development Incubator.
Coleman, J et al (2017) Effectiveness of an SMS-based maternal mHealth intervention to improve clinical outcomes of HIV-positive pregnant women, AIDS Care, Volume 29, Issue 7, pp. 890-897
Mechael, P & Sharp, J (2017) What is Personal Connected Health: An Ecosystem’s Perspective Defining Personal Connected Health. Washington, DC: Personal Connected Health Alliance.
Myhre, S et al (2016) eRegistries: governance for electronic maternal and child health registries. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 16:279 BMC Open.
Mookherji, S; Mehl, G; Kaonga, N.; Mechael, P (2015) Unmet Need: Improving mHealth Evaluation Rigor to Build the Evidence Base, Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1018624 Routelage, Taylor and Francis.
Catalani, C et al (2013) mHealth for HIV Treatment & Prevention: A Systematic Review of the Literature. The Open AIDS Journal 7, 17-41 17 1874-6136/13 2013 Bentham Open.
Kaonga, N. et. al. (2013) Mobile phones and social structures: an exploration of a closed user group in rural Ghana. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 13:100 (03 Sep 2013)
Donner, J., & Mechael, P. (Eds.). (2012). mHealth in Practice Mobile technology for health promotion in the developing world. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Pronyk, P. et.al. (2012). The effect of an integrated multisector model for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving child survival in rural sub-Saharan Africa: a non-randomised controlled assessment. The Lancet, Volume 379, Issue 9832, Pages 2179 - 2188, 9 June 2012.
Piette, J. et al. (2012) Impacts of e-health on the outcomes of care in low- and middle-income countries: where do we go from here? WHO Bulletin Volume 90, Number 5, pp. 365-372, May 2012.
Mechael PN, Nemser, B et.al, (2012). Capitalizing on the Characteristics of mHealth to Evaluate Its Impact. Journal of Health Communication Volume 17, Supplement; pp.62-66, 1/May 2012.
Mechael, PN; Kaonga, N; Rodriquez-Wong, D (2011). Empowering Women through Mobile Technology – We Need to do More. Concilience: The Journal of International Development (Columbia University). May 2011.
Puri J, Mechael P, Cosmaciuc R, Sloninsky D, Modi V, Berg M, Kim Huynh U, Kaonga N, Ohemeng-Dapaah S, Baraza M, Emmanuel A, Lyimo S. A Study of Connectivity in Millennium Villages in Africa. Paper and Presentation at ICTD2010, Royal Holloway, London. 13-16 December 2010.
Mechael PN, Batavia H, et. al. (2010). Barriers and gaps affecting mHealth in low and middle-income countries: Policy white paper. New York, New York: Earth Institute, Columbia University; 2010.
Curioso, Walter and Mechael, Patricia (2010). Enhancing ‘M-Health’ With South-To-South Collaborations. Health Affairs.2010; 29: 264-267.
Mechael, Patricia (2009). Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating mHealth Applications into Rural Health Initiatives in Africa. Chapter in Handbook of Research on Developments in E-Health and Telemedicine: Technological and Social Perspectives. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global 2009.
Mechael, Patricia & Dodowa Health Research Center (2009). MoTECH: mHealth Ethnography Report. Produced for Grameen Foundation funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 2009.
Mechael, Patricia (2009). The Case for mHealth in Developing Countries. Mobilizing Markets: Special Edition of MIT Innovations Journal for the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009. Cambridge: MIT Press, pages 153-168.
Todrys, Katherine; Mechael, Patricia (2008). The Ethics of Telemedicine in Africa: The Millennium Villages Project Experience. Conference Paper: Mobile Communication and the Ethics of Social Networking September 25–27, 2008 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.
Mechael, Patricia (2008). Mobile Phones and Healthcare: An Egyptian Case in Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies (J. Katz, ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.