Abstract:
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 demanddthere 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
