A digital health registry with clinical decision support for improving quality of antenatal care in Palestine (eRegQual): a pragmatic, cluster-randomised, controlled, superiority trial

Background Health worker compliance with clinical guidelines is enhanced by digital clinical decision support at the point of care. The Palestinian public health system is implementing a digital maternal and child health eRegistry with clinical decision support. We aimed to compare the quality of antenatal care between clinics using the eRegistry and those using paper-based records. Methods The eRegQual cluster-randomised controlled trial was done in primary health-care clinics offering routine antenatal care in the West Bank, Palestine. The intervention was the eRegistry with clinical decision support for antenatal care, implemented in District Health Information Systems 2 (DHIS2) Tracker software. 133 clinics forming 120 clusters were included and randomised; clusters were randomly assigned (1:1) to either the control (paper-based documentation) or intervention (eRegistry with clinical decision support) groups. The primary process outcomes were appropriate screening and management of anaemia, hypertension, and diabetes during pregnancy and foetal growth monitoring. The primary health outcome at delivery was a composite of moderate or severe anaemia; severe hypertension; large-for-gestational-age baby; malpresentation and small-for-gestational-age baby undetected before delivery. Data were analysed with mixed-effects logistic regression, accounting for clustering within clinics and pregnancies as appropriate. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN18008445). Findings Between Jan 15 and Sept 15, 2017, 3219 pregnant women received care in the intervention clinics (n=60 clusters) and 3148 pregnant women received care in the control primary health-care clinics (n=59 clusters). Compared with the control group, the intervention led to higher guideline adherence for screening and management of anaemia (1535 [28·9%] of 5320 vs 2297 [44·3%] of 5182; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1·88 [95% CI 1·52–2·32]), hypertension (7555 [94·7%] of 7982 vs 7314 [96·6%] of 7569; adjusted OR 1·62 [95% CI 1·29–2·05]), and gestational diabetes (1726 (39·7%) of 4348 vs 2189 (50·7%) of 4321; adjusted OR 1·45 [95% CI 1·14–1·83]) at eligible antenatal contacts. Only 599 (9·4%) of 6367 women attended the full antenatal care schedule, and better care provision did not translate to fewer adverse health outcomes in the intervention clusters (700 cases; 21·7%) compared to the control clusters (688 cases; 21·9%; adjusted OR 0·99; 95% CI 0·87–1·12). Interpretation Clinical decision support for antenatal care in the eRegistry was superior for most process outcomes but had no effect on the adverse health outcomes. The improvements in process outcomes strengthen the evidence for the WHO guideline for digital client tracking with clinical decision support in lower-middle-income settings. Digital health interventions to address gaps in attendance might help achieve effective coverage of antenatal care.publishedVersio

Quality improvement dashboard for healthcare providers and targeted client communication to pregnant women to improve timely attendance and quality of antenatal care: A multi-arm cluster randomized trial (the eRegCom trial)

Background: Digital health interventions can strengthen coverage and quality of care. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of targeted client communication (TCC) to pregnant women via text messages, health care provider communication via a quality improvement dashboard (QID) and the combination of TCC and QID—generated and delivered from a digital maternal and child health registry (MCH eRegistry), running on the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform in West Bank and Gaza. The control was the regular MCH eRegistry. Methods: We included 137 clusters in a four-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. Primary outcomes were appropriate screening and management of anemia, hypertension and diabetes during pregnancy, and timely attendance to routine antenatal care (ANC). Results: The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the trial, which failed to achieve the estimated sample size. Between 1 December 2019 and 23 March 2020, 4138 women attended ANC in the TCC, 3553 in the QID, 4223 in the TCC & QID and 3324 in the control arm. In the TCC arm, 76.5% of the visits were attended timely versus 73.4% in the control arm, (adjusted odds ratio, 1.2; 95% confidence interval, 0.90–1.61). We found no difference between QID and control, or between TCC & QID control in the proportion of visits where anemia, hypertension and diabetes were appropriately screened and managed. Conclusion: The routine individual-level data of the MCH eRegistry enabled the implementation of theory-driven TCC and QID. However, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted this trial of TCC and QID, and we were unable to observe any significant effect.publishedVersio

Mistreatment of Women during Childbirth and Associated Factors in Northern West Bank, Palestine

Mistreatment of women during childbirth is a clear breach of women’s rights during childbirth. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of mistreatment of women during childbirth in the north of West Bank, Palestine. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 269 women within the first 16 weeks of their last vaginal childbirth to understand the childbirth events by using proportionate stratified random sampling. An Arabic valid questionnaire was used as a study instrument. Simple and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the factors associated with each type of mistreatment. The mean age of the women was 26.5 (SD 4.77) years. The overall prevalence of mistreatment was 97.8%. There were six types of mistreatment. Nine factors were significantly associated with the occurrence of one or more types of mistreatment. Delivery at a public childbirth facility was associated with all of the six types (aAdjOR: 2.17–16.77; p-values < 0.001–0.013). Women who lived in villages (aAdjOR 2.33; p-value = 0.047), had low education (aAdjOR 5.09; p-value = 0.004), underwent induction of labour (aAdjOR 3.03; p-value = 0.001), had a long duration of labour (aAdjOR 1.10; p-value = 0.011), did not receive pain killers (aAdjOR: 2.18–3.63; p-values = 0.010–0.020), or had an episiotomy or tear (aAdjOR 5.98; p-value < 0.001) were more likely to experience one or more types of mistreatment. With every one-hour increase in the duration of labor, women were 1.099 times more likely to experience a failure to meet the professional standard of care. Women were less likely to experience mistreatment with increasing age. Women with increasing age (aAdjOR: 0.91–0.92; p-values = 0.003–0.014) and parity (aAdjOR 0.72; p-value = 0.010) were less likely to experience mistreatment. Awareness of women’s fundamental rights during childbirth, making the childbirth process as normal as possible, and improving the childbirth facilities’ conditions, policies, practices and working environment may decrease mistreatment occurrence

eRegQual—an electronic health registry with interactive checklists and clinical decision support for improving quality of antenatal care: study protocol for a cluster randomized trial

Abstract Background Health worker compliance with established best-practice clinical and public health guidelines may be enhanced by customized checklists of care and clinical decision support driven by point-of-care data entry into an electronic health registry. The public health system of Palestine is currently implementing a national electronic registry (eRegistry) for maternal and child health. This trial is embedded in the national implementation and aims to assess the effectiveness of the eRegistry’s interactive checklists and clinical decision support, compared with the existing paper based records, on improving the quality of care for pregnant women. Methods This two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial is conducted in the West Bank, Palestine, and includes 120 clusters (primary healthcare clinics) with an average annual enrollment of 60 pregnancies. The intervention tool is the eRegistry’s interactive checklists and clinical decision support implemented within the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) Tracker software, developed and customized for the Palestinian context. The primary outcomes reflect the processes of essential interventions, namely timely and appropriate screening and management of: 1) anemia in pregnancy; 2) hypertension in pregnancy; 3) abnormal fetal growth; 4) and diabetes mellitus in pregnancy. The composite primary health outcome encompasses five conditions representing risk for the mother or baby that could have been detected or prevented by high-quality antenatal care: moderate or severe anemia at admission for labor; severe hypertension at admission for labor; malpresentation at delivery undetected during pregnancy; small for gestational age baby at delivery undetected during pregnancy; and large for gestational age baby at delivery. Primary analysis at the individual level taking the design effect of the clustering into account will be performed as intention-to-treat. Discussion This trial, embedded in the national implementation of the eRegistry in Palestine, allows the assessment of process and health outcomes in a large-scale pragmatic setting. Findings will inform the use of interactive checklists and clinical decision support driven by point-of-care data entry into an eRegistry as a health systems-strengthening approach. Trial registration ISRCTN trial registration number, ISRCTN18008445 . Registered on 6 April 2017

Oeuvre d'Orient

décembre 19631963/12 (T43,N538)

A digital health registry with clinical decision support for improving quality of antenatal care in Palestine (eRegQual): a pragmatic, cluster-randomised, controlled, superiority trial

Background Health worker compliance with clinical guidelines is enhanced by digital clinical decision support at the point of care. The Palestinian public health system is implementing a digital maternal and child health eRegistry with clinical decision support. We aimed to compare the quality of antenatal care between clinics using the eRegistry and those using paper-based records. Methods The eRegQual cluster-randomised controlled trial was done in primary health-care clinics offering routine antenatal care in the West Bank, Palestine. The intervention was the eRegistry with clinical decision support for antenatal care, implemented in District Health Information Systems 2 (DHIS2) Tracker software. 133 clinics forming 120 clusters were included and randomised; clusters were randomly assigned (1:1) to either the control (paper-based documentation) or intervention (eRegistry with clinical decision support) groups. The primary process outcomes were appropriate screening and management of anaemia, hypertension, and diabetes during pregnancy and foetal growth monitoring. The primary health outcome at delivery was a composite of moderate or severe anaemia; severe hypertension; large-for-gestational-age baby; malpresentation and small-for-gestational-age baby undetected before delivery. Data were analysed with mixed-effects logistic regression, accounting for clustering within clinics and pregnancies as appropriate. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN18008445). Findings Between Jan 15 and Sept 15, 2017, 3219 pregnant women received care in the intervention clinics (n=60 clusters) and 3148 pregnant women received care in the control primary health-care clinics (n=59 clusters). Compared with the control group, the intervention led to higher guideline adherence for screening and management of anaemia (1535 [28·9%] of 5320 vs 2297 [44·3%] of 5182; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1·88 [95% CI 1·52–2·32]), hypertension (7555 [94·7%] of 7982 vs 7314 [96·6%] of 7569; adjusted OR 1·62 [95% CI 1·29–2·05]), and gestational diabetes (1726 (39·7%) of 4348 vs 2189 (50·7%) of 4321; adjusted OR 1·45 [95% CI 1·14–1·83]) at eligible antenatal contacts. Only 599 (9·4%) of 6367 women attended the full antenatal care schedule, and better care provision did not translate to fewer adverse health outcomes in the intervention clusters (700 cases; 21·7%) compared to the control clusters (688 cases; 21·9%; adjusted OR 0·99; 95% CI 0·87–1·12). Interpretation Clinical decision support for antenatal care in the eRegistry was superior for most process outcomes but had no effect on the adverse health outcomes. The improvements in process outcomes strengthen the evidence for the WHO guideline for digital client tracking with clinical decision support in lower-middle-income settings. Digital health interventions to address gaps in attendance might help achieve effective coverage of antenatal care

The effect of a digital targeted client communication intervention on pregnant women’s worries and satisfaction with antenatal care in Palestine–A cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: The eRegCom cluster randomized controlled trial assesses the effectiveness of targeted client communication (TCC) via short message service (SMS) to pregnant women, from a digital maternal and child health registry (eRegistry) in Palestine, on improving attendance and quality of care. In this paper, we assess whether this TCC intervention could also have unintended consequences on pregnant women’s worries, and their satisfaction with antenatal care (ANC). Methods: We interviewed a sub-sample of Arabic-speaking women attending ANC at public primary healthcare clinics, randomized to either the TCC intervention or no TCC (control) in the eRegCom trial, who were in 38 weeks of gestation and had a phone number registered in the eRegistry. Trained female data collectors interviewed women by phone from 67 intervention and 64 control clusters, after securing informed oral consent. The Arabic interview guide, pilot-tested prior to the data collection, included close-ended questions to capture the woman’s socio-demographic status, agreement questions about their satisfaction with ANC services, and the 13-item Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS). We employed a non-inferiority study design and an intention-to-treat analysis approach. Results: A total of 454 women, 239 from the TCC intervention and 215 from the control arm participated in this sub-study. The mean and standard deviation of the CWS were 1.8 (1.9) for the intervention and 2.0 (1.9) for the control arm. The difference in mean between the intervention and control arms was -0.16 (95% CI: -0.31 to -0.01) after adjusting for clustering, which was below the predefined non-inferiority margin of 0.3. Women in both groups were equally satisfied with the ANC services they received. Conclusion: The TCC intervention via SMS did not increase pregnancy-related worries among recipients. There was no difference in women’s satisfaction with the ANC services between intervention and control arms

eRegTime—Time Spent on Health Information Management in Primary Health Care Clinics Using a Digital Health Registry Versus Paper-Based Documentation: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Digital health interventions have been shown to improve data quality and health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nonetheless, in LMICs, systematic assessments of time saved with the use of digital tools are rare. We ran a set of cluster-randomized controlled trials as part of the implementation of a digital maternal and child health registry (eRegistry) in the West Bank, Palestine. Objective: In the eRegTime study, we compared time spent on health information management in clinics that use the eRegistry versus the existing paper-based documentation system. Methods: Intervention (eRegistry) and control (paper documentation) arms were defined by a stratified random subsample of primary health care clinics from the concurrent eRegQual trial. We used time-motion methodology to collect data on antenatal care service provision. Four observers used handheld tablets to record time-use data during one working day per clinic. We estimated relative time spent on health information management for booking and follow-up visits and on client care using mixed-effects linear regression. Results: In total, 22 of the 24 included clinics (12 intervention, 10 control) contributed data; no antenatal care visits occurred in the other two clinics during the study period. A total of 123 and 118 consultations of new pregnancy registrations and follow-up antenatal care visits were observed in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Average time spent on health information management for follow-up antenatal care visits in eRegistry clinics was 5.72 minutes versus 8.10 minutes in control clinics (adjusted relative time 0.69, 95% CI 0.60-0.79; P<.001), and 15.26 minutes versus 18.91 minutes (adjusted relative time 0.96, 95% CI 0.61-1.50; P=.85) for booking visits. The average time spent on documentation, a subcategory of health information management, was 5.50 minutes in eRegistry clinics versus 8.48 minutes in control clinics (adjusted relative time 0.68, 95% CI 0.56-0.83; P<.001). While the average time spent on client care was 5.01 minutes in eRegistry clinics versus 4.91 minutes in control clinics, some uncertainty remains, and the CI was consistent with eRegistry clinics using less, the same, or more time on client care compared to those that use paper (adjusted relative time 0.85, 95% CI 0.64-1.13; P=.27). Conclusions: The eRegistry captures digital data at point of care during client consultations and generates automated routine reports based on the clinical data entered. Markedly less time (plausibly a saving of at least 18%) was spent on health information management in eRegistry clinics compared to those that use paper-based documentation. This is likely explained by the fact that the eRegistry requires lesser repetitive documentation work than paper-based systems. Adoption of eRegistry-like systems in comparable settings may save valuable and scarce health care resources.publishedVersio