Oluwaseun Obasola College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Transcription

1 The Use of Information and Communication Technology by Health Workers for Maternal and Child Health Care: A Review of Seven e-health projects in Nigeria Oluwaseun Obasola College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

2 Background 289,000 women and 5.9 million children under the age of five die yearly around the world Sub-Saharan Africa: 179,000 women 50% of the under five death in the region Nigeria :40,000 women and of the under five death occur in the country

3 Background This resulted in ehealth/mhealth intervention. In spite of the use ICT for MCH care, Nigeria is still amongst the ten most dangerous country for a woman to give birth Misinformation/ Inadequate information Unhealthy practices High Maternal and under five mortality

4 objective Hence, the need to examine projects involving the use of ICT for the delivery of MCH information and services in Nigeria and the influence on health practices and outcomes

5 Methods A literature search using Google Scholar, PubMed and Global health revealed seven (e-health) projects: Mailafiya Project Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja-Nigeria Maternal and Neonatal Health Care (MNHC) Learning Project Gombe State Safe Motherhood Project (Abiye) in Ondo State Mobile Community Based Surveillance (mcbs) Kaduna, OpenMRS to support Maternal and Reproductive Health in Kaduna State m-health services for MCH at Federal Medical Centre Owerri. Mobile Maternal Child Health Information Technology (mmchit) in six states

6 Mailafiya

7 Abiye Project

8 Society for Family Health Call Centre

9 Project 2 : Mobile Community Surveillance

10 Project : OpenMRS Information system

11 Results Cont.

12 Discussion Using mobile technologies for the delivery of MCH information and services can encourage the adoption of safe MCH practices as outlined by the World Health Organisation, which can lead to behavioural changes. private/public partnerships involving governments, mobile phone service providers and NGOs political will and involvement of state and local governments, mobility for health workers and ambulance to convey pregnant women during emergencies, training more health personnel to fill existing gaps in workforce, awareness creation, information dissemination, ICT channel/it skills of health workers, and robust and efficient mobile phone-internet infrastructure, supported by traditional ICT media

13 Recommendation A broader strategy is required for integrating ICT into MCH care and must harmonise the efforts of all stake holders. Silos projects must give way to a national intervention project that utilises uniform integrated ICT platform. ICT services providers and regulatory agencies must operate based on best practice to enable the benefits of reliable and quality services to resonate in the health sector. A private public partnership has been proven to be effective for projects implemented with government taking the lead. Consequently emphasis should be placed on developing and implementing an efficient, user centric information dissemination models. Apart from using ICT to disseminate information to mothers to influence behavioural changes in order to save lives, it could also be used to avoid challenges encountered in reaching influencers, policy and decision makers. ICT should be integrated into record keeping, information dissemination, capacity building, referrals, diagnosis and consultation. Developing of an ICT integration policy framework is necessary. Adequate funding for continuous research for ICT integrations should be provided

14 A model for effective MCH information the dissemination

15 Conclusion The impacts from these projects are not significant when compared to what is required to meet the millennium development goals. Consequently to amplify the benefits emanating from these projects, it is evident that there is a need to scale-up the level of ICT integration in MCH care. This requires a multi-dimensional approach that is based on best practices and a cost effective plan. A multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary team should champion the course of integrating ICT into MCH care. The approach would be to replicate a uniform e-health model (with slight modifications to suit the peculiarity of each community and target audience), while developing strategies and policies to eliminate hindrances to maximise the benefits of ICT for MCH care.

16 Thank You for listening