Limbanazo
Kapindula (Twitter:
@Limkapin) has come to ITM to help us out in setting up a mobile diabetic project (will
report on this later) in Cambodia, the Philippines and the Democratic Republic
of Congo. He comes all the way from Malawi where he was involved in three 5
year projects with Management Sciences for Health, they all came to an end in
September 2011 (5 year projects). This is a short synopsis of his presentation.
Limbanazo
is an IT expert, and he gave the mobile phone training to people who had never
used mobile phones before.
Challenges in Malawi
Challenging
infant mortality rates (69/1000 children die in the first year) and only 40% of
women in Malawi had access to family planning services.
So how can
the access to care be increased? How can community workers be helped?
Targeted people:
Health
surveillance agents,
Community
based distribution agents providing oral contraceptives HIV/AIDS.
13 of the
28 Malawi districts were targeted.
Innovation: community health care using mobile
technology
Use of
simple mobile phones for electronic reporting and other important communication
To help
2000 CHW (Community Health Workers) what was needed was:
Report in
timely way
Get support
during emergencies
Request and
receive remote technical support
Refer
clients/patients for secondary care
Key issues to make it successful
Training to
all the users
Technical
support to all
Involve the
stakeholders (telecom, ministry of health…)
Planning
the backup (data backup for future support).
How this mHealth project was set-up
A network
between central computers that are connected via USB modems for data transfer,
connected with Frontline Medic sms (enables bulk message interactions between a
central location and people across any region, setting up forms, connect to
patient database).
It was a
simple application, so simple that it could be learned from a manual. It took
three months to fit the project to the scientific demands of the researchers
(java reader, specified forms), but the actual use was really easy thanks to
this pre-project input, nevertheless there were some people who simply were not
able to cope with the technology and they dropped out due to the pressure to
keep reporting (those were mainly part of the community based distribution
agents, which are volunteers).
Over 12000
text messages captured using the system within 8 months (WAW!!!).
50% of the
messages was on technical information, 35% on patient reports (this division
was connected to the startup of the project, dialogues between health care
workers). These distinctions in the mobile communication could be recorded
because they used keywords for specific communications.
Cost was a
main concern for the government, after taking into account all the data, the
project showed that with only 10 cents a child’s life could be saved.
If you are
interested in setting up a mobile project in any region that is based on simple
phones, contact Limbanazo who has all this expertise. Or take a look at the
program that was used and check it out yourself.
