Photo Credit: Ethan Goldwater

Last week the executive director of the mHealth Alliance (mHA) David Aylward decided to step down from his position as head of the alliance to focus "his talents and commitment to mHealth... on delivery of mHealth rather than running the multi-faceted Alliance," UN Foundation Chief Executive Officer Kathy Calvin wrote in an email to mHA partners. Aylward has held the position since the fall of 2009 -- shortly after the founding of the mHA.

"As founding Executive Director, David provided the vision and passion that built the mHA into a reality," Calvin wrote. "We are indebted to David for his service over these last two years. His contributions have set the mHA on the path to great success. The UN Foundation will continue to host and support the mHA, and as we undergo the search for the new Executive Director, the mHA will be managed by a team comprised of current mHA staff members plus members of the UN Foundation’s accomplished Global Health team."

Calvin said that the UN Foundation's Managing Director of Global Health Kate Dodson will lead the mHA management team, which includes Clive Smith, Jennifer Potts, Jody Ranck and Autumn Wilner-Heard. Calvin also said the team will report to UN Foundation COO Rick Parnell and herself, too. Aylward will help with the transition, Calvin said.

"mHealth is one of the most important, most promising opportunities for delivering better health outcomes worldwide," Calvin concluded, "and we are committed to continuing the work of the mHA to make that vision a reality."

As executive director of the mHA, Aylward served in one of the most visible leadership roles of the emerging mHealth field:

“Getting a rational eHealth system with a sophisticated mHealth system extending it into the community, is certainly where we are trying to go,” Aylward Alliance told MobiHealthNews shortly after he took the helm at the mHA. ”We certainly don’t have either in this country. Even if we do find a good model, it’s not clear to me that we would import it back into this country. What could happen though is a whole bunch of consumer-based health services that were one step removed from the core health system in the developed market could be a result of success in the developing markets. The industrial barriers to interoperability in the U.S. — and I don’t know about Europe but I suspect the same thing — are so powerful that even a whole bunch of good examples from Africa and Asia is not going to overcome the vested economic interests in the United States.”

Calvin hinted that Aylward would be moving into role where he would work to deliver mHealth services. Given the high perch he has had for the 18 months, we look forward to learning more about his future pursuits in mHealth.