Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins. As such, it can often be difficult to navigate prior work, and/or to piece together a broad picture of what the field looks like as a whole. In this paper, we aim to contextualize HCI4D—to give it some historical background, to review its existing literature spanning a number of research traditions, to discuss some of its key issues arising from the work done so far, and to suggest some major research objectives for the future

Simulation and visualization of large scale distributed health system infrastructure of developing countries

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014.Developing countries are faced with a number of health-care challenges: long waiting hours of patients in long queues is just one of such challenges. The key cause of this has been identi ed to be a lack, or uneven distribution human resources among health facilities. This sets the stage for poor and ine cient delivery of quality primary health care, especially to the rural dweller as they usually have a fewer medical professionals in their area. The impact of this a ects not only the state of health of the population, but also the economy, and population growth of the a ected community. To try and address this, the introduction of Information Technology (IT) into health-care has been suggested by many health governing bodies like theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and other authorities in health care. The ability of IT to go beyond physical boarders and extend professional care has been the key characteristic that supports its integration into health-care. This has eventually lead to the development of Health Information Systems (HIS) that support remote consultation. Despite all these innovations, there is still evidence of poor and ine cient delivery of services at health facilities in many developing countries. We propose a completely di erent approach of addressing the problem of poor and ine cient delivery of health-care services. The key challenge we address is that of lengthy queues and long waiting hours of patients in health facilities. To cut down on the use of nancial resources (whose lack or shortage is a major challenge in developing economies), we propose an approach that focuses on the routing of patients within and between health facilities. The hypothesis for this study is based on a suggestion that alterations to the routing of patients would have an e ect on the identi ed challenges we seek to address in this study. To support this claim, a simulator of the health system was built using the OMNET++ simulation package. Analysis of test-runs for di erent scenarios were then tested and the simulation results were compared against controls to validate the functioning of the simulator. Upon validation of the simulator, it was then used to test the hypothesis. With data from the di erent health-care facilities used as input parameters to the simulator, various simulation runs were executed to mimic di erent routing scenarios. Results from the di erent simulation runs were then analyzed. The results from the simulator and analysis of these results revealed that: In a case where patients where not given the liberty to consult with a doctor of their choice but rather to consult with the next available doctor/specialist, the average time spent by patients dropped by 26%. The analysis also revealed that moving a receptionist from the rst stage upon patient entry into the health facility reduced the average patient life time by 85%. This was found to be a consequence of a drop in queue length (a 28% drop in queue length). On the other hand, the analysis also revealed that the total removal of a general receptionist increased patient life-time in a facility by 30.19%. This study also revealed that if specialists were deployed to certain health facilities rather than having referred patients come to them in the urban health facilities, patient population in the urban health centers will drop by 32%. This also saw a drop in patient waiting time in the rural health centers as more doctors were available (a reduced patient-to-doctor ratio in rural health facilities). The results from the analysis support our hypothesis and revealed that indeed, alterations to the way patients are routed does have an e ect on the queue lengths and total waiting time of patients in the health system

A bottom-up participatory governance institutional framework for sustainable community development in a Malaysian sub-urban area

The concern in governance institutional framework for a sustainable community development has been recognised as being a major social, economic and environment concern which has been a focal point of the United Nation and deliberated in Rio+20 summit. The UNEP (2012) report recognised that the present governance institutional framework is weak and UNECA (2012) claimed that it did not permeate sustainability. This has led to the development of this framework to guide practitioners to deliver higher and improved sustainability standards for their sustainable community development initiatives at the local level in Malaysia. This study explores the level of sustainability in seven suburban villages under the jurisdiction of Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara (DBKU) in Sarawak, Malaysia. In particular, the study attempts to determine to what extent its current governance and the organizational structure facilitate sustainable development. The aim of the research is to develop a participatory bottom-up governance institutional framework for a sustainable community vision that can be implemented to attain sustainable communities in the villages. To answer the research questions, aim and objectives were set out for the study a mixed method approach was adopted combining a qualitative and quantitative methodology. A qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven community leaders from seven villages involved in the delivery of community development at the villages. A quantitative data collected through a questionnaire survey from 300 household heads at the villages. This was analysed using Thematic Analysis, SWOT and triangulated using TOWS Matrix. These villages are classified into sustainable and unsustainable (self-sustaining and sustentation. The study identified the key causal factors that hinder the sustainability. The GAP Analysis carried out with the experts revealed that the governance institutional framework is the key causal factor hindering the attainment of sustainability. This finding led to a development of a participatory bottom up governance institutional framework using Delphi Method. The framework outlines thirteen strategies needed to naissance the sustainable community development in a suburban setting. To implement the strategies, a guideline is needed and a workshop needs to be conducted involving the community leaders, officers of the local authority and other stakeholders