Lijing Yan

Primary Theme: Global Health

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths and disability in many low-and middle-income countries, including Nepal. Prevention of cardiovascular diseases demands innovative solutions through multidisciplinary and multifaceted approaches. Nepal’s female community health volunteer program has been in place for three decades. Duke researchers have conducted a trial to successfully extend the roles of these volunteers from primarily maternal and child health interventions to include hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. With a nearly 100% mobile phone ownership rate in the country, Nepal’s Ministry of Health has prioritized mobile health (mHealth) interventions. Medic Mobile has received support to scale up its feature-phone-based (non-smartphone) program to thousands of female community health volunteers to address prenatal care and maternal health. This Bass Connections project will collaborate with these partners to develop design insights and feature-phone-based programs, which will create a foundation for interventions with the potential to make a significant impact on hypertension prevention and control.