Managing and monitoring chronic non-communicable diseases in a primary health care clinic, Lilongwe, Malawi.

SETTING: Patients with chronic non-communicable diseases attending a primary health care centre, Lilongwe, Malawi. OBJECTIVE: Using an electronic medical record monitoring system, to describe the quarterly and cumulative disease burden, management and outcomes of patients registered between March 2014 and June 2015. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. RESULTS: Of 1135 patients, with new registrations increasing each quarter, 66% were female, 21% were aged ⩾65 years, 20% were obese, 53% had hypertension alone, 18% had diabetes alone, 12% had asthma, 10% had epilepsy and 7% had both hypertension and diabetes. In every quarter, about 30% of patients did not attend the clinic and 19% were registered as lost to follow-up (not seen for ⩾1 year) in the last quarter. Of those attending, over 90% were prescribed medication, and 80-90% with hypertension and/or diabetes had blood pressure/blood glucose measured. Over 85% of those with epilepsy had no seizures and 60-75% with asthma had no severe attacks. Control of blood pressure (41-51%) and diabetes (15-38%) was poor. CONCLUSION: It is feasible to manage patients with non-communicable diseases in a primary health care setting in Malawi, although more attention is needed to improve clinic attendance and the control of hypertension and diabetes

The feasibility of automating audit and feedback for ART guideline adherence in Malawi

Objective: To determine the feasibility of using electronic medical record (EMR) data to provide audit and feedback of antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinical guideline adherence to healthcare workers (HCWs) in Malawi. Materials and methods: We evaluated recommendations from Malawi's ART guidelines using GuideLine Implementability Appraisal criteria. Recommendations that passed selected criteria were converted into ratio-based performance measures. We queried representative EMR data to determine the feasibility of generating feedback for each performance measure, summed clinical encounters representing each performance measure's denominator, and then measured the distribution of encounter frequency for individual HCWs across nurse and clinical officer groups. Results: We analyzed 423 831 encounters in the EMR data and generated automated feedback for 21 recommendations (12%) from Malawi's ART guidelines. We identified 11 nurse recommendations and eight clinical officer recommendations. Individual nurses and clinical officers had an average of 45 and 59 encounters per month, per recommendation, respectively. Another 37 recommendations (21%) would support audit and feedback if additional routine EMR data are captured and temporal constraints are modeled. Discussion: It appears feasible to implement automated guideline adherence feedback that could potentially improve HCW performance and supervision. Feedback reports may support workplace learning by increasing HCWs' opportunities to reflect on their performance. Conclusion: A moderate number of recommendations from Malawi's ART guidelines can be used to generate automated guideline adherence feedback using existing EMR data. Further study is needed to determine the receptivity of HCWs to peer comparison feedback and barriers to implementation of automated audit and feedback in low-resource settings

An electronic register for vital registration in a rural village with no electricity in Malawi.

SETTING: Chalasa village, Traditional Authority Mtema, Lilongwe District, Malawi. OBJECTIVES: To report on the deployment of an electronic register in a rural village with no electricity. Specific objectives were to document 1) challenges in setting up the electronic village register (EVR); 2) demographics of village residents, along with births and deaths over three quarters; and 3) the costs of setting up the system. DESIGN: A descriptive study. RESULTS: The main challenges were slow adoption of the EVR by the village headman, lack of health passports for village residents, double counting of some residents and difficult connectivity. These challenges were overcome. In terms of data, of 790 village residents, 379 (48%) were male, 417 (53%) were aged <15 years and 29 (3.6%) ⩾65 years. From April to December 2013, there were 18 births and 5 deaths. The cost of the EVR, including maintenance costs for 12 months, was US$6210. CONCLUSION: An EVR was successfully deployed in Chalasa village, rural Malawi, and data on the resident village population, along with quarterly births and deaths, are now available. This is the first step towards a village-level civil registration system in rural Africa

Scaling up electronic village registers for measuring vital statistics in rural villages in Malawi.

Setting: Eighty-three villages without electricity in Mtema Traditional Authority, Lilongwe District, Malawi. Objectives: To describe 1) the expansion of the electronic village register (EVR) to 83 villages in Mtema Traditional Authority, 2) the challenges encountered and changes made to render the system robust and user-friendly, 3) the value propositions developed to increase the system's desirability, and 4) the results of the village register. Design: Descriptive study. Results: After the deployment of the EVR in one village in 2013, the system was extended to 83 villages with modifications to render it more robust and user-friendly. These changes included modifications to the power, connectivity and work stations, better battery security and a single modular electronics panel. Value propositions of the EVR for the village headmen included daily postings of news/sports items and sockets for charging mobile phones and lanterns. Of the 47 559 residents registered, 48% were male, 14% were aged 0-4 years, 43% were aged 15-44 years and 4% were aged ⩾65 years. Between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, 976 births and 177 deaths were recorded. The total equipment cost per village was US$2430. Conclusion: An electronic village birth and death registration system can function in an area with no communication or electricity infrastructure