Review of Grey Sources on mLearning
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Enhancing Nurses Access for Care Quality and Knowledge through Technology (ENACQKT)
3. Country/countries: The Caribbean
4. Type of device and format: PDA
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-139858-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
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8. Summary: In order for health workers to provide effective patient care, access to timely information is essential. In the Caribbean, nurses often lack basic resources, work remotely, and are isolated, which makes data sharing challenging. Enhancing Nurses Access for Care Quality and Knowledge through Technology (ENACQKT) empowers nurses by providing training and other services via PDAs. A key component of ENACQKT is building nurses’ capacity through technology instruction, giving them the means to access healthcare applications through the PDAs provided by the program. This enhances professional development and improves quality of care for patients. Project principals report several achievements, including time savings for nurses and greater access to information, particularly in the areas of medication and treatment support. The project also reports success in imparting a sense of empowerment to the nurses in terms of speaking to physicians about conditions, treatments, and diagnosis.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Healthline
3. Country/countries: Pakistan
4. Type of device and format: Mobile phones/ Landlines
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~healthline
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8. Summary: One of the chief obstacles to mHealth solutions is literacy, or the lack thereof. To ensure that semi-literate community health workers have access to critical information, Microsoft and others are developing HealthLine, a speech recognition-based information system. The solution is based on Microsoft Speech Server2007 beta software. The menu-driven program can be accessed via landlines or mobile phones. Callers specify a topic (or disease) and are walked through a set of menus until they reach the information they are seeking. The information is then read to them—from a prerecorded message— in their local language. HealthLine was tested among a group of low-literate maternal and child health community health workers in Pakistan in mid-2007. It will continue to be tested in the field with the results informing new features, functionality, and enhancements. Ideally, the solution will be scaled across Pakistan for maximum impact.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Mobile HIV/AIDS Support
3. Country/countries: Uganda
4. Type of device and format: PDA
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.universitiesireland.ie/pubs/report0306.pdf
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8. Summary: ‘Training the trainers’—providing healthcare workers in the field with accessible and reliable medical information— is essential for improved health delivery in the developing world. Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is collaborating with the medical school at Makerere Hospital in Kampala, Uganda to explore the potential advantages of using PDAs in HIV/AIDS care and treatment. The project aims to provide high-quality medical information
and advice to healthcare workers in Uganda and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. After an initial needs assessment, the project leaders—a group of academic clinicians from TCD, the Dublin Institute of Technology, and North American universities—developed a prototype of a training program on the clinical care, research, and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The program was to be evaluated by a select group of healthcare workers in the field. Results of the testing and evaluation have not yet been published.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Primary Healthcare Nursing Promotion Program
3. Country/countries: Guatemala
4. Type of device and format: Mobile phone/Telephone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: Also contact: Isabel Lobos –
7. Link: http://www.enecav.edu.gt/
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8. Summary: Nursing shortages, especially in rural areas, are common in developing countries (and increasingly in developed ones as well). The National School for Nurses of Coban in Guatemala created the Primary Healthcare Nursing Promotion Program to increase the number of nursing personnel available to work in rural areas. One component of this program is a virtual nursing course, which is taught via a combination of telephone and two-way data communications. Of the first virtual nursing course graduates in 2004, a subset became ‘community tele-facilitators.’ These tele-facilitators were each given a mobile (or satellite) phone, which they used to link their rural communities with health specialists in urban areas. The pilot test was launched in 2005 in five municipalities in northern Guatemala and covered 150 communities with a total population of 45,000. At this time, there appears to be continued progress on the virtual nursing training component, but it is not certain whether the tele-facilitator program continued after the initial pilot test.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: The Uganda Health Information Network (UHIN)
3. Country/countries: Uganda
4. Type of device and format: PDA
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.comminit.com/en/node/119535/347
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8. Summary: Uganda has become a laboratory for efforts to improve two-way data flows between health workers and government officials, and the Uganda Health Information Network (UHIN) is a prime example of these efforts. UHIN uses PDAs to collect data and to provide continuing medical education services to physicians. The PDAs send and receive messages via infrared beams that send the signals to battery-operated access points. The program was launched in 2003 and currently 350 PDAs are being used. They are connected to 20 access points in different districts of Uganda. Positive impacts were recorded early on: “The network delivered a 25% savings in the first 6 months...health workers using the handheld technology now have better job satisfaction and [it] is contributing to staff retention...” The UHIN is planning an analysis to determine if the project has had an impact on health outcomes such as healthcare planning, resource allocation, and delivery.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: GUIDE: Getting Medical Information into the Hands of Community Health Workers
3. Country/countries: South Africa
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://mobileactive.org/case-studies/guide-getting-medical-information-hands-community- - health workers
8. Summary: In rural locations, doctors and nurses are often acting in isolation, separated from the medical community and easy access to information. GUIDE essentially takes medical and treatment documents and makes them accessible for users with small devices by converting the documents into HTML, which makes the documents legible on any browser that supports HTML. Projects goals: Create a mobile library of medical information that is accessible anywhere, at any time, over a mobile phone; Change existing attitudes about technology in developing countries; Create a self-sustaining medical information system.
What Worked: Rapid pick-up of the project by the community health care workers; A trickle- down dissemination effect as the nurses with phones shared the resources with other health workers who were not part of the pilot; Partnerships with local organizations who provided documents for conversation, and local technical support
What Didn’t Work: Overcoming sexist views about women and technology; The original plan to put the program on PDAs was scrapped, and was moved to smartphones in order to take advantage of Internet access; Navigating health buraucracies in the implementation.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Mobile Phones’ Potential to Address Information and Communication Needs of Healthcare Workers in Isolated Rural Areas in Peru
3. Country/countries: Peru
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/ict4d/workingpapers/crespo.pdf
8. Summary: The aim of this paper is to present the main findings of the interviews and observation undertaken in health locations in rural areas of Peru, aimed at exploring the application of mobile technology for health in isolated areas, and thereby to provide wider reflections about the use of mobile phones to improve health delivery in isolated areas in developing countries. It also reflects on methodological complexities, particularly those related t o the application of online research methods, through the experience gained during the research.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: CommCare
3. Country/countries: Tanzania, Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.dimagi.com/commcare/
http://mobileactive.org/mobile-tools/commcare
8. Summary: Dimagi and D-Tree international are leading CommCare, a mobile-phone based application enables community health workers (CWHs) to provide better, more efficient care while also enabling better supervision and coordination of community health programs. Each CHW will have a phone running the CommCare software that will assist them in managing household visits and planning their day. CommCare will collect and report data that will help monitor and evaluate community health programs themselves. Each CHW will have a phone running the CommCare software that will assist them to manage household visits and plan their day. Using CommCare, community health workers also collect and report data that will help them monitor and evaluate community health programs. There are many ways in which CommCare can support community health programs. For example, CHWs can be encouraged to visit every woman who gives birth as soon as possible after delivery. CommCare guides the CHW through a questionnaire to collect data on the birth and the condition of the infant that includes questions to assess the infant and mother for key danger signs. In addition to sending the data back to a central repository to assist with vital registration, the system will also guide the CHW to urgently refer an infant or mother in need of medical attention, thus addressing one of the key barriers to reducing neonatal morality.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: HIV Health Information Access using Spoken Dialogue Systems: Touchtone vs. Speech
3. Country/countries: Botswana
4. Type of device and format: Telephone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14234869/ICTD-2009-Proceedings
8. Summary: This paper presents our work in the design of a SDS for the provision of health information to caregivers of HIV positive children. We specifically address the frequently debated question of input modality in speech systems; touchtone versus speech input, in a new context of low literacy users and a health information service. We discuss our experiences and fieldwork which includes needs assessment interviews, focus group sessions, and user studies in Botswana with semi and low-literate users. Our results indicate user preference for touchtone over speech input although both systems were comparable in performance based on objective metrics.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Technology for Early Disease Detection and Rapid Disaster Response: InSTEDD
3. Country/countries: Cambodia, Vietnam
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone and Computer
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: mj marcus InSTEDD T4H 02 29 08.pdf
8. Summary: This presentation provides an overview of the InSTEDD Global Platform for Early Disease Detection, Reponse, and Evaluation. The summary includes reviews the proportion of infections detected and proposes addressing these challenges by adopting a social network and cognitive model approach. The approach facilitates: Early identification of potential health threats and verification, assessment, and investigation of threats in order to recommend measures (public health and other) to control them. The presentation describes the indicator and event-based hybrid surveillance approach and gives two examples of collaborative testing in the field.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Mobile Learning for Health Care Workers in Peru
3. Country/countries: Peru
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.ml4d.org/kb/DNs/hcw-peru
8. Summary: Problem / Aim: As mobile devices have been on the rise in Peru and they enable people to stay in contact with one another, we wondered whether mobile learning in combination with social media might provide a solution for the lack of training for HCW scattered across the country. Situation: As a Health Care Worker (HCW) you abide by the Hippocrates’ oath, you want to provide the best possible care at the best of your human possibilities. Unfortunately, nature and the global society we live in provide some challenges. In Peru the HCWs live in a challenging professional setting: HIV/AIDS cases are increasing and scattered around the country but not many HCWs know how to deal with it correctly, there is very limited to no access to the latest updated medical information on the topic, many HCWs need to be emerged in basic HIV/AIDS information, there is no infrastructure to build an online Community of Practice (CoP), and although there are internet cafés in the major cities, the Internet connectivity is limited. Furthermore far from all HCWs had a personal computer.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: Satellife
3. Country/countries: Kenya, Uganda, Ghana
4. Type of device and format: PDA
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link:
http://www.unpan.org/Library/KnowledgeBaseofICTforPublicService/tabid/826/ctl/ProductDetail/mid/2182/ProductID/24/language/en-US/Default.aspx
8. Summary: In Ghana, community volunteers have been using PDAs to collect data as part of a measles vaccination program. In Kenya, medical students were equipped with PDAs loaded with relevant information about their studies in obstetrics/gynecology, internal medicine, and pediatrics. In Uganda, practicing physicians were given PDAs containing basic reference material as part of their continuing medical education.
The Ghana project yielded compelling evidence of the value of PDAs for data collection and reporting. Data from 2,400 field surveys were submitted to the implementing agency by mid-day following a vaccination campaign in a particular location. They were analysed, and a report was prepared for the Ministry of Health by the end of the day. Previously, data entry would have taken 40 hours using paper and pencil surveys.
The Kenya and Uganda pilots demonstrated the value of using PDAs for information dissemination. In Uganda, 95 percent of physicians reported that using the reference materials over a three-month period improved their ability to treat patients effectively. This included improvements in diagnosis, drug selection, and overall treatment. In Kenya, the majority of students actively used the treatment guidelines and referred to the medical references and textbooks stored on the PDA during their clinical practice.
1. Organization: N/A
2. Document name: TRACnet
3. Country/countries: Rwanda
4. Type of device and format: Mobile Phone
5. Type of document: case
6. Contact info: N/A
7. Link: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/sipa/nelson/newmediadev/Health.html
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/africa_casestudies/tracnet.pdf
8. Summary: The TRACnet system, developed by the company Voxiva, is a web-based application that is accessible both through computers and mobile phones. The system allow clinics to send HIV/AIDS patient information from mobile phones with SMS text messaging to a central database using a standard Motorola phone with a downloadable application. [2] Using TRACnet, health care workers can track and follow up with HIV patients in remote areas with no electricity and little infrastructure. Clinics can also receive the results of laboratory tests and drug=recall alerts on their mobile phones. They can also send health alerts and inventory counts of antiretroviral drugs, as well as download treatment guidelines and training materials.[3] The system is designed to increase accountability among health care workers through an electronic record that is created by every input into the system. TRACnet also facilitates better communication from clinic to clinic as well as from individual clinics to the Health Ministry in Kigali.[4]
The TRACnet system can be accessed through any PC with an internet connection. It features a “dashboard” that shows data and government HIV indicators from the field, giving the viewer a comprehensive view of the status, patient load, and drug supply levels of all of the HIV/AIDS programs in Rwanda. The aggregated information from all of the clinics also allows healthcare and government workers to identify trends in the data and to track the effectiveness of the program over time. The dashboard also includes a geographic information system (GIS) mapping feature that shows all of the clinics offering HIV/AIDS services, and identifies particular clinics experiencing shortages of anti-retroviral drugs.[5] The system now connects 75% of Rwanda’s 340 clinics and covers over 32,000 people.[6] The health ministry in Rwanda plans to expand the TRACnet system to the monitoring of measles, polio, meningitis, and malaria, and other diseases.