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Discussion about entry: *Y.C.* eHealth and Information Systems: Nigeria
This is discussion about *Y.C.* eHealth and Information Systems: Nigeria.
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Hi Adam,
This sounds like a really great and well-thought through idea. My question is, what guarantees that people will actually use/adopt the technologies?
Thanks for submitting!
Claire
Ashoka
Hi Claire,
Thanks for the question. The short answer is that adoption is always the main barrier that I read about in ICT systems, especially other eHealth Systems.
We've done 2 things to address this and have had great adoption.
1) The system is designed to fit the needs of the clinics/hospitals so we spend time getting feedback from EVERYONE. This is really important since managers and records staff tend to be mostly male. For our system to work we involve the nursing and maternity staff to make sure it fits their needs and they understand how to use the system. This produces some sense of ownership for the various stakeholders and after that we've had to do very little to encourage continued use.
2) The second strategy came after our 2nd implementation in Nigeria. We worked at a general hospital that had a specific records staff in a specific room that was very isolated from the rest of the hospital staff. This created the feeling that information was inaccessible to other staff. So instead of designing the system to be records office driven we worked with lots of the other staff specifically in maternity and antenatal. This had some really great wins for us. The women wanted to learn to use computers and in exchange for computer tutorials agreed to take on regular data entry tasks. We install educational games and resources on the computers so when there is downtown staff can practice typing, look up information about family planning, or birth complications, and catch up on data entry.
All of this leads to our systems being used and as more people are involved there is much more buy-in. The real success is also that the actual practitioners are getting more familiar with information and starting to use patient medical history in their care without prompting from me or other trainers.
Thanks very much for your question.
Wow... thanks for your thorough response. That helps my understanding quite a bit. My other question for you is how/why you chose to implement in Nigeria? Is this something you're thinking of scaling to other countries as well?
Also, don't forget to make sure the information you put in the comments section is reflected in your entry! The judges don't look at comments.
Thanks again!
Claire
Why Nigeria is a long story... largely it has to do with work I started doing with a Women's Human Rights organization I worked with in 2003 in Lagos, Nigeria. Further work with the Packard Foundation enabled me to go to Northern Nigeria to do several years of ICT-based capacity building with Women's Rights and Women's Health organizations.
My other reason for working in Nigeria is that it is hard. It has one of the worst records in terms of Women's Health, it's health system generally poor even though Nigeria has vastly more wealth than surrounding countries.
In terms of exporting the system outside of Nigeria, this will be a relatively simple task. Our idea is a system that "just works" in places that have very "harsh computing" conditions. I've spoken with lots of individuals to that are working on health systems all over Africa and Asia so there has been lots of collaboration and there will be lots more. As we develop the social business models around eHealth Nigeria I hope that it will inspire or enable others to do the same in surrounding areas.