Stories From Experts
Hillary Chen
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Hillary Chen is a Policy Analyst in the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President.
As [Text4baby] HHSInnovates awardees—and the countless others who contributed their time and talents to Text4baby—can attest, it was not a simple challenge to develop a free service that involves every major mobile phone carrier and delivers carefully vetted, easily understandable health information, all in the space of a text message. The day-to-day efforts required to create and launch this innovative service were not glamorous – gradually gaining acceptance of a new idea, late nights and weekends going above and beyond the call of duty, and coordinating a diverse set of partners.
[Text4baby] deserves tremendous credit for ensuring that the Federal Government lived up to its potential as a key partner by seizing the opportunity to help leverage cell phones to improve the lives of moms and babies around the country. As an added benefit, the program has helped create a new community of Federal partners who have experience and expertise in mobile phone-based public health programs.
