Evaluation of an Android-based mHealth system for population surveillance in developing countries
Evaluation of an Android-based mHealth system for population surveillance in developing countries
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DOI：
10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000476
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发表时间：
2012-07-01
影响因子：
6.4
通讯作者：
Were, Martin C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rajput, Zeshan A.;Mbugua, Samuel;Were, Martin C.
在部分发展中国家，传统模式的医疗保健系统不能充分满足民众的需求。这可能是由于供需不平衡-可能缺乏足够的医疗保健，而最需要的人群可能无法或不愿意利用它。家庭护理已成为一种可能的机制，以具有成本效益的有用方式为民众提供医疗保健。本研究描述了一个移动的设备为基础的系统，以支持这样的service.Materials和方法的开发，实施和评估移动的手机被利用和结构化的调查，由社区卫生工作者使用开放数据包管理。该系统被用来支持人口200万人在肯尼亚西部的筛查工作。结果该系统的用户觉得它很容易使用，方便他们的工作。该系统也比笔和纸的替代品更具成本效益。讨论这种实现方式是利用手持设备在资源受限的环境中在家访期间执行临床护理的系统的最大应用之一。由于可以立即以电子方式获得数据，因此可以进行初步报告，从而可以发现数据中的重要趋势。这使得对方案的调整能够比其他方式更快地进行。结论已经制定并实施了一个可行的、具有成本效益的大规模解决方案，用于在资源有限的情况下在家庭访问期间收集电子数据。
Objective In parts of the developing world traditionally modeled healthcare systems do not adequately meet the needs of the populace. This can be due to imbalances in both supply and demand-there may be a lack of sufficient healthcare and the population most at need may be unable or unwilling to take advantage of it. Home-based care has emerged as a possible mechanism to bring healthcare to the populace in a cost-effective, useful manner. This study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a mobile device-based system to support such services.Materials and Methods Mobile phones were utilized and a structured survey was implemented to be administered by community health workers using Open Data Kit. This system was used to support screening efforts for a population of two million persons in western Kenya.Results Users of the system felt it was easy to use and facilitated their work. The system was also more cost effective than pen and paper alternatives. Discussion This implementation is one of the largest applications of a system utilizing handheld devices for performing clinical care during home visits in a resource-constrained environment. Because the data were immediately available electronically, initial reports could be performed and important trends in data could thus be detected. This allowed adjustments to the programme to be made sooner than might have otherwise been possible.Conclusion A viable, cost-effective solution at scale has been developed and implemented for collecting electronic data during household visits in a resource-constrained setting.