# National Dissemination of the Gabby Women's mHealth Program in Lesotho

> **NIH NIH R21** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 2020 · $198,976

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Background. The Gabby Preconception Care system is an innovative communication system designed to
identify and mitigate health risks for young African American (AA) or Black women before pregnancy, as a
means of improving in birth outcomes. “Gabby” is an online animated character that simulates face-to-face
conversation and engages women in an empathic dialogue to educate them about their health risks. The
proposed research occurs in Lesotho, a low income country with the second highest HIV and fifth highest
tuberculosis prevalence rates worldwide, and a maternal mortality rate (1024/100,000) that is among the
highest in Africa. As there are only 6.2 nurses and 0.5 physicians per 10,000 people, both about one-third of
the African average, there is an enormous need for mHealth systems to assist the clinical care system.
Goals. The goals of this project are to (1) adapt the online Gabby system to a culturally appropriate Gabby
Women’s mHealth Program tailored to the medical needs of the country including enhanced HIV/Tb dialogue
and interventions, and (2) study the dissemination and implementation of Gabby at all ten government district
hospitals in Lesotho. Implementation occurs in partnership with the infrastructure developed by the Lesotho
Boston Health Alliance’s physician training program that allows for national dissemination of best practices.
Methods. Conduct a type 3 hybrid study design, with a primary focus on implementation and a secondary
focus on effectiveness. Approaches include: (1) system adaptation with input from key stakeholders to guide
cultural tailoring efforts and script development for use on mobile phones, (2) engaging and assessing site
readiness at 10 district hospital in Lesotho, (3) carrying out a 3 month implementation of Gabby among 200
women attending outpatient clinic visits (20 per site), and (4) disseminating results of the implementation.
Outcomes. This project will determine the extent to which the mHealth Gabby intervention is successfully
disseminated to and implemented at district hospital locations and will measure effectiveness of the system in
a low income country setting. Implementation outcome evaluation focuses on four implementation outcomes as
defined by Proctor and evaluated using readiness interviews, focus groups, system-generated data, learning
communities, and technical assistance logs. Clinical effectiveness is evaluated using stage of change data for
individual risks generated by the system at baseline and after 3 months of system use. Results will be
disseminated into the clinical, health services research, information technology and policy communities.
Significance. The implementation of a user-friendly, culturally competent, evidence-based, scalable mHealth
tool to improve the health of young women for whom access to health services is limited is critical to reaching
FIC’s research objectives. This project contributes to the evidence base for the use of mHealth to im...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9994012
- **Project number:** 5R21TW011361-02
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **Principal Investigator:** BRIAN William JACK
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $198,976
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-09 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9994012

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9994012, National Dissemination of the Gabby Women's mHealth Program in Lesotho (5R21TW011361-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9994012. Licensed CC0.

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