mHealth stands for mobile health and basically means using mobile phone technology to improve health systems. While visiting the MDR-TB clinic yesterday I looked into how they keep their records and how they report them. Basically each patient has a paper file, some data of which is transcribed into a register book, which is then typed into a computer. So basically data is entered 3 times at least. Health workers sometimes don't consider it a priority (surprise!) to enter their numbers in the computer and sometimes let things get backed up. In discussion with the people there, it again seemed clear to me that data should be entered once, electronically. (You may be tempted to think that triple entry improves accuracy, but actually it only reflects the accuracy of the transcribing since data is only taken from the source once.)
But there's another problem. Computers aren't so abundant. And even if they were, internet connections and power connections aren't so abundant. And even if they were, computers would stop being so abundant as machines would get nicked, as they say "they tend to walk away".
To meet these problems and the need for treatment centers to have reliable back-ups of records on hand, I propose a funky typewriter-smart phone hybrid. The two would be integrated enough that the machine would be essentially useless outside of the clinic, thus making it far less tempting to steal. When it comes time to update a record for treatment, the clinic worker looks up the record, adds the information to the record using the specific smart phone app (ie the typewriter can't be used for normal printing) and when the data are submitted, a line is instantly printed on a sheet in the typewriter part. The worker could also do the same on her own smart phone, which will also send a message to the typewriter part to print. At the end of the day, the sheet is taken from the machine and placed in the treatment book. Of course the printing could be super-basic (dot matrix?), only black and white, and perhaps use special paper like the ink-included kind that receipts are printed on.
In short, the data are entered once. The clinic has the power of computing technology to assist with patients and that technology is specialized for the clinic so it doesn't leave the clinic.
But there's another problem. Computers aren't so abundant. And even if they were, internet connections and power connections aren't so abundant. And even if they were, computers would stop being so abundant as machines would get nicked, as they say "they tend to walk away".
To meet these problems and the need for treatment centers to have reliable back-ups of records on hand, I propose a funky typewriter-smart phone hybrid. The two would be integrated enough that the machine would be essentially useless outside of the clinic, thus making it far less tempting to steal. When it comes time to update a record for treatment, the clinic worker looks up the record, adds the information to the record using the specific smart phone app (ie the typewriter can't be used for normal printing) and when the data are submitted, a line is instantly printed on a sheet in the typewriter part. The worker could also do the same on her own smart phone, which will also send a message to the typewriter part to print. At the end of the day, the sheet is taken from the machine and placed in the treatment book. Of course the printing could be super-basic (dot matrix?), only black and white, and perhaps use special paper like the ink-included kind that receipts are printed on.
In short, the data are entered once. The clinic has the power of computing technology to assist with patients and that technology is specialized for the clinic so it doesn't leave the clinic.
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