MedInfo 2010 Submission: Experience Implementing OpenMRS to Support Maternal and Reproductive Health in Northern Nigeria

Our Team just recently completed our submission to MedInfo 2010. We are really interested to read your comments and feedback.

Abstract

In Northern Nigeria a deteriorating health system has resulted in one of the World’s highest rates of maternal and infant deaths. The dire situation in Northern Nigeria is only amplified by the lack of an effective health information system, leaving hospitals and clinics to make decisions about patient care with only uninformed guesses about medical history and access to unreliable and unintelligible patient registers and summary reports.

In 2009 we implemented an electronic medical records system using OpenMRS for the Family Health Unit of the Shehu Idris College. The three-month process resulted in electronic forms for all clinical areas, greatly reduced data duplication and a monthly reporting process that takes minutes instead of days. This system provides not only access to the first patient-based health indicators in Nigeria (as opposed to previously error-prone aggregate data) but is also an example of the potential to overcome the harsh computing environment in Nigeria to implement eHealth systems that will improve the quality of patient care.

Full Paper Download Full Paper (pdf)

Honorable mention at the CITRIS Big Ideas Competition

The eHealth Nigeria Team received honorable mention at UC Berkeley’s Big Ideas Competition for technology in the interest of society (sponsored by CITRIS).  The full list of winners and finalists is available at CITRIS’s competition site.

CINCH: Cell Phone Technologies to Increase Nigerian Community Health
Evelyn Castle, Jenny Scafidi, Adam Thompson and Paul Lubeck, UC Santa Cruz
This project aims to determine suitable mobile technologies that will improve the health care system in Nigeria. Cell phone technologies are the most efficient way to get information to the majority of citizens in cities and in rural areas. Most of Nigeria does not have access to a constant electricity source. Mobile phones are much more versatile than computers or the Internet because they do not require electricity to run. Data can be collected and disseminated regardless of what the situation is regarding electricity. Mobile technologies are also a means to collect health information and surveys in a more organized manor.