Our founder publishes in BMJ Heart

The evidence on mHealth cardiovascular care in Africa has been mapped for the first time in a scoping review by Sintieh Research Academy’s founder, Dr Sintieh Ekongefeyin, published in BMJ Heart. The review, written during his work at the University of Oxford, examines how mobile health tools are used before, during and after cardiovascular events across the continent, and where the gaps in evidence lie.

The mHealth cardiovascular care paper

Ekongefeyin SNN, Dedino G, Wild C. Mapping the evidence on mHealth interventions for cardiovascular event care in Africa: a scoping review. Heart 2026;112(2):65-74. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2025-325992. The article is also indexed on PubMed.

Why mHealth cardiovascular care matters

Cardiovascular disease is rising across Africa, and most patients live far from a cardiologist. Mobile phones are everywhere. The review asks a practical question: what has actually been tried, with which patients, and with what result? It finds a growing but uneven literature, with most studies on prevention and follow-up and few on the acute event itself. Consequently, the paper sets out priorities for the next round of studies, several of which SRA fellows are now designing.

How the review was done

The authors searched the major biomedical databases for studies of mobile health tools used in the care of cardiovascular events in African countries, screened them against pre-registered criteria, and charted each study by country, condition, stage of care and type of intervention. The result is a map rather than a verdict: it shows where evidence exists, where it is thin and which questions the next studies should answer. That approach is the one we teach in our own systematic review programme.

What it means for SRA

Sintieh Research Academy trains researchers, and its staff publish. This paper is the model our fellows work towards in the systematic review mentorship programme. Through SHINE, our parent organisation, we continue to design and deliver studies on digital health and cardiovascular care in Cameroon and beyond. More of our work is listed in the SHINE publications library and on the events and publications page.