BRAC health informatics system

This thesis report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering, 2005.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis report.Includes bibliographical references (page 102).At the beginning of the 21st century, the field of global public health is changing rapidly, not only in its basic methods, but also in technological aspects. The first and foremost concerns of BRAC health program is to provide health service to mass populations. To cope up with changing world’s need BRAC Health department should accept the fruit of technology. As a result we have proposed three solutions to automate the entire health peocess namely- (I) using hand scanner, mobile phone and OCR technology, (II) using Epi Info software package tools for data analysis, (III) web-based database system. This report focuses on automation using hand scanner, mobile phone and OCR technology. It offers real time data usability and scope for analysis. Thus provides rapid and accurate decision making opportunity.Hasnain FerozeSoriful Alam SumonB. Computer Science and Engineerin

Step towards progressive web development in obstetrics

The aim of this paper is to develop a Personal Health Record (PHR) for the support of pregnant women. With this goal in mind, concepts such as PHR and their importance in the obstetrics field are overviewed, as well as mobile development strategies. The system was developed with the support of a medical institution and taking into account what pregnant women find useful. The developed app is a Progressive Web App (PWA). This is a recent technology that allows the same app to work on most devices, gives a native feel to it when using on mobile devices and enables offline support. Further testing is necessary to understand the impact that this system may have in the engagement of pregnant women and in birth outcomes.This work has been supported by Compete: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT within the Project ScopeUID/CEC/00319/2013

Assessing the impact of mHealth interventions in low- and middle-income countries – what has been shown to work?

PKBackground: Low-cost mobile devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, and personal digital assistants, which can access voice and data services, have revolutionised access to information and communication technology worldwide. These devices have a major impact on many aspects of people’s lives, from business and education to health. This paper reviews the current evidence on the specific impacts of mobile technologies on tangible health outcomes (mHealth) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), from the perspectives of various stakeholders. Design: Comprehensive literature searches were undertaken using key medical subject heading search terms on PubMed, Google Scholar, and grey literature sources. Analysis of 676 publications retrieved from the search was undertaken based on key inclusion criteria, resulting in a set of 76 papers for detailed review. The impacts of mHealth interventions reported in these papers were categorised into common mHealth applications. Results: There is a growing evidence base for the efficacy of mHealth interventions in LMICs, particularly in improving treatment adherence, appointment compliance, data gathering, and developing support networks for health workers. However, the quantity and quality of the evidence is still limited in many respects. Conclusions: Over all application areas, there remains a need to take small pilot studies to full scale, enabling more rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental studies to be undertaken in order to strengthen the evidence base

Mobile health data: investigating the data used by an mHealth app using different mobile app architectures

Mobile Health (mHealth) has come a long way in the last forty years and is still rapidly evolving and presenting many opportunities. The advancements in mobile technology and wireless mobile communication technology contributed to the rapid evolution and development of mHealth. Consequently, this evolution has led to mHealth solutions that are now capable of generating large amounts of data that is synchronised and stored on remote cloud and central servers, ensuring that the data is distributable to healthcare providers and available for analysis and decision making. However, the amount of data used by mHealth apps can contribute significantly to the overall cost of implementing a new or upscaling an existing mHealth solution. The purpose of this research was to determine if the amount of data used by mHealth apps would differ significantly if they were to be implemented using different mobile app architectures. Three mHealth apps using different mobile app architectures were developed and evaluated. The first app was a native app, the second was a standard mobile Web app and the third was a mobile Web app that used Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). Experiments using the same data inputs were conducted on the three mHealth apps. The primary objective of the experiments was to determine if there was a significant difference in the amount of data used by different versions of an mHealth app when implemented using different mobile app architectures. The experiment results demonstrated that native apps that are installed and executed on local mobile devices used the least amount of data and were more data efficient than mobile Web apps that executed on mobile Web browsers. It also demonstrated that mobile apps implemented using different mobile app architectures will demonstrate a significant difference in the amount of data used during normal mobile app usage

Role of Information Technology in Policy Implementation of Maternal Health Benefits in India

Fifty thousand women died during childbirth in India in 2013, the highest total in the world; that is, one maternal death every 10 minutes. India and Nigeria account for almost one-third of total global maternal deaths. In pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, the government of India directed efforts to improve maternal health and was able to reduce maternal mortality rate from 437 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 140 per 100,000 in 2015, albeit missing the target of 109. Moreover, estimates for maternal morbidity are three to four times that of the mortality rates with even more pronounced regional disparities. Universal access to free public healthcare for maternal health has been a national goal since 2005, but its quality of service and utilization rate of maternal healthcare remains an elusive dream for many of the rural women even after a decade of substantial efforts. In a stark contrast, mobile technology has become more pervasive than the most basic infrastructure across the world. There are over 7 billion mobile phones subscriptions worldwide, but only 4.5 billion people have access to basic sanitation facilities, implying more people have access to mobile phones than toilets in the world, including India. The ubiquity of mobile phones can no longer be ignored. According to the 2011 census of India, 47 percent of the rural households owned mobile phones, and mobile phone network coverage spanned over 99 percent of the rural landscape, but only 31 percent of these rural households had a toilet. This exponential growth in mobile phone ownerships and adaptation has captured the imagination of academic scholars, public administration and the private sector to push for mobile based solutions and services in almost every aspect of public, social and personal life. M-governance has gained prominence too, aimed at improving service delivery, transparency, policy monitoring, public engagement, combatting corruption and poverty, especially in the developing world, leap-frogging poor-resource and low-income constraints. Today there is a mobile app for everything and the solution to any problem is a mobile app, including maternal health. However, amidst this optimism, it is surprising that the potential of mobile phones to improve social policy awareness is yet to be fully exploited. There are initiatives toward health literacy and mobile based cash transfers but few initiatives are geared toward improving awareness of social welfare policies, informing people about eligibility, enrollment and entitlements. Here lies the uniqueness of this research. Motivated to find solutions to actual policy implementation problems in practice, this research lies at the intersection of information communication technology, maternal health benefit policies and public management. In India, low maternal health benefits policy awareness imposes an administrative burden on rural women and leads to uptake of cash and public health service benefits. This research explores if mobile phones can be used as an effective medium to increase maternal health benefit awareness; thereby increasing the claiming of benefits. Using mixed methods of research, insights are drawn from a longitudinal case study in Melghat, a tribal belt of Amravati District in Maharashtra, India; a region that suffers from high maternal morbidity and high infant mortality rate. Forty-two percent of total childbirths take place in the home despite four different maternal benefit policies promoting institutional delivery and safe motherhood. In this dissertation, customized audio messages about maternal healthcare benefit policies were designed and broadcasted to 82 pregnant tribal women and followed up with qualitative interviews to examine any improvements in claiming of the policy benefits in 2013. The research provided an in-depth view of how information was disseminated through mobiles phones, and what factors and trade-offs, beyond information, were actually considered by the households in claiming the policy benefits. This research offers four contributions. First, it provides a deeper understanding of maternal health policies, how incentives work and the impact of conditions attached to these incentives, providing a plausible explanation for why the policies remain only partially effective. Second, in an era of m-governance, it illuminates the potential and limitations of the mobile phones in policy implementation and civic engagement, through a gendered lens. Third, it yields a caution to the technological optimistic use of mobile phones. By evaluating the causal mechanism of whether and how information awareness led to greater claiming of benefits, the findings revealed that information awareness alone was insufficient to improve claims when there were structural and systemic deficiencies in the policy design and management. Fourth, it advances the theory of administrative burden, by using mobile phones to reduce learning costs and by expanding the concepts of compliance costs and psychological costs, and highlights the relative interaction and trade-offs between components of administrative burden in an international context. The research concludes that although mobile phones have the potential to trigger demand for policy benefits and public engagement, and reduce learning cost, they are not the “silver bullet” because they cannot bypass the fundamental challenges of other administrative burdens, policy design deficiencies and bureaucratic processes

Technology as tool to overcome barriers of using fitness facilities: A health behavioural perspective

Underlying health conditions have been highlighted throughout the literature preventing several populations from engaging in physical activity. There have been little to no attempts made in addressing these populations directly in fitness facilities or indirectly using information technology (IT). The current research aimed at exploring current barriers and practices regarding IT and technological support in a fitness facility environment, using health behaviour theories (HBT) to explain member experiences. The sample was composed of 66 participants selected from 5 fitness facilities in Manchester, UK, of which there were 60.6% males and 39.4% females aged from 18-59. The instrument used was a survey. Health motives were reported by 71.2% of the participants, while ‘injury’ (reported by 70.2%), ‘lack of knowledge about exercise and health’ (reported by 42.4%), and ‘illness’ (reported by 28.1%) as main barriers to use the facilities. The main support mechanisms provided by the facilities management were staff support (59%), with online and technological support only accounting for 38.6% of facility support. The use of personal IT within the facilities were utilised by over half the participants (50.2%). The study revealed the need of additional IT support by fitness facilities in the form of applications and digital platforms. The findings are discussed with HBT as the theoretical underpinnings and suggestions are made for future research regarding IT advancements as support mechanisms

The Impact of ICT on Health Promotion: A Randomized Experiment with Diabetic Patients

This paper summarizes randomized experiment to study the effects of an Internetbased intervention on type 2 diabetes patients in Montevideo, Uruguay. The intervention consisted of a specially designed website and an electronic social network where participants were able to navigate freely, download materials, and interact with other diabetics and with specialists. No significant impact was found on participants` knowledge, behavior, or health outcomes. It was also found that only a minority of patients logged on to the website, and most were only reached by email and mobile text (SMS). Participation in the website is correlated with patients` characteristics, such as gender, marital status, and education.Randomized trial, Diabetes, Public health, Uruguay

Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact

The focus of this paper is on improving governance through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the delivery of services to the poor, i.e., improving efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and reducing bribery. A number of papers recognize the potential benefits but they also point out that it has not been easy to harness this potential. This paper presents an analysis of effective case studies from developing countries where the benefits have reached a large number of poor citizens. It also identifies the critical success factors for wide-scale deployment. The paper includes cases on the use of ICTs in the management of delivery of public services in health, education, and provision of subsidized food. Cases on electronic delivery of government services, such as providing certificates and licenses to rural populations, which in turn provide entitlements to the poor for subsidized food, fertilizer, and health services are also included. ICT-enabled provision of information to enhance rural income is also covered

Designing a Multimedia Intervention for Illiterate and Semi-Illiterate Pregnant Women in Developing Countries: A Case of Uganda

Die hohe Müttersterblichkeit in Entwicklungsländern ist zum Teil auf indirekte Faktoren wie Analphabetismus und eingeschränkten Zugang zu Gesundheitsinformationen für Mütter zurückzuführen. Während gebildete Frauen auf Gesundheitsinformationen über Online-Plattformen und mHealth-Apps zugreifen können, müssen Analphabetinnen diese in Gesundheitseinrichtungen abrufen, was aufgrund der Transportkosten oft nicht möglich ist. Mobilfunktechnologie hat in der Gesundheitsversorgung Chancen für ressourcenarme Gemeinschaften eröffnet, die sonst nicht von den digitalen Technologien profitiert hätten. Obwohl Mobilfunktechnologie in der Müttergesundheit eingesetzt wird, können die meisten Maßnahmen nicht von Analphabeten genutzt werden, verwenden Sicherheitsmodelle die nicht auf den Kontext von Entwicklungsländern zugeschnitten sind, und wurden nicht auf ihre Auswirkungen auf die Müttergesundheit hin evaluiert. In dieser Arbeit wurden zwei (Web und Mobile) Apps entwickelt, die die Übermittlung von multimedialen Nachrichten zur Müttergesundheit, Terminerinnerungen und Anrufe/Chats erleichtern. Um die Anforderungen der Nutzer zu erfassen, wurde eine Feldstudie mit halbstrukturierten Interviews und Fokusgruppendiskussionen mit schwangeren Analphabetinnen, Gesundheitsexperten und Entwicklern durchgeführt. Es folgte die Entwicklung eines Sicherheitsmodells (T2RoL) zur Sicherung der Gesundheitsinformationen in den Apps, die dann nach einem nutzerzentrierten Designansatz entwickelt wurden. Eine zweite Feldstudie in Form von halbstrukturierten Interviews und Umfragen wurde durchgeführt, um die mobile App in einer randomisierten kontrollierten Studie mit 80 schwangeren Analphabetinnen über 9 Monate zu evaluieren. Die Auswertung zeigte, dass die App akzeptiert wurde sowie einfach zu erlernen und zu benutzen war. Das Wissen über Müttergesundheit in der Interventionsgruppe verbesserte sich, was sich positiv auf gesundheitsbezogene Entscheidungen und Gesundheitsmaßnahmen auswirkte.Maternal mortality is high in developing countries partly due to indirect factors such as illiteracy and limited access to maternal health information. While literate women can access health information from online platforms, and mHealth apps, illiterate women must get it from health facilities which is often not possible due to lack of transport fees. Mobile technology has opened opportunities in maternal health care for low resource communities that would otherwise not have benefited from digital technologies. Although used in maternal health, most interventions are not usable by the illiterate, use security models that are not tailored to the developing countries’ context, and have not been evaluated to assess their impact on maternal health care. In this thesis, two (web and mobile) apps that facilitate delivery of multimedia-based maternal health messages, appointment reminders, and calls/ chats were developed. To gather user requirements, a field study in form of semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions was conducted with illiterate pregnant women, health practitioners and developers. Development of a security model (T2RoL) to secure the health information in the apps followed. The apps were then developed following a user-centered design approach. A second field study in form of semi-structured interviews and surveys was conducted to evaluate the mobile app through a randomized controlled trial with 80 illiterate pregnant women that were followed for 9 months. Overall, results show that the app was acceptable, easy to learn and use. There was improved maternal health knowledge among the intervention group which positively influenced health related decision making and health practices

M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint