Leadership of Mobile Health Units for Preventative Health—Using Networks and Distributed Digital Platform
Soto, Sheila; Cordova, Rodrigo Valenzuela; Khambekar, Prashant
Abstract
The University of Arizona’s Primary Prevention Mobile Health Unit (MHU) Program is an innovative model that tackles hurdles faced by disadvantaged communities in Arizona by directly providing free preventative services and education. The MHU, a community outreach model, utilizes Promotores de Salud or Community Health Workers (CHWs) in collaboration with a network of community organizations and interdisciplinary health science student volunteers as service learning. The study provides an overview of services provided by the MHUs using publicly available data. It analyzes individual and group interactions and some gaps in quality follow-up after linkage-to-care. The paper addresses these gaps by discussing the potential role of blockchain technology as an integrated digital platform that can provide automatic reminders and follow-up analysis of referrals to improve population health.