Tanzania MOH and donors introduced reporting requirements for PMTCT (preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS) facilities to submit monthly reports to the district and regional levels for progam monitoring and decision making. Futures Group is responsible for collecting reports from PMTCT facilities across four regions. Sites are remote and there is no Internet, and no computers.
To meet the technical and budgetary challenges we developed IQSMS, an open source, freely available SMS reporting tool monitoring and evaluation data collection, to enable facilites to report on PMTCT indicators. IQSMS is used to track program activities at PMTCT sites in rural Tanzania using basic SMS mobile phone technology.
IQSMS is a freely available, software using SMS data in a predetermined format. Information is sent to a dedicated central laptop connected to Motorola mobile phones. The IQSMS software aggregates incoming SMS reports into an SQL database. Automated data quality checks, business rules and immediate notifications are sent to users ensuring that only validated data is added to the database. Aggregated PMTCT data is instantly available to district, regional and national managers based on role views.
FINALIST AND HONORABLE MENTION IN STOCKHOM CHALLENGE AWARD 2010
International Quality Short Message Services focus on development and implementation of a software technology that uses mobile phone to report data to a dedicated centralized computer. This will help coordinating medical care in various part of Tanzania. It is a project with great impact and potential for transferability particularly as the costs of telecom tend to decline with volume. It is a case of e-health, more clearly mobile e-health. International Quality Short Message Services makes health services available. a service which must be recognized. Congratulations.
The software uses SMS data in a predetermined format, sent to a dedicated central laptop connected to a Motorola mobile phone. The IQSMS software records incoming SMS reports into an SQL database. Automated data quality checks, business rules and immediate notifications are sent to users ensuring that only validated data is added to database. Aggregated PMTCT data is instantly available to district, regional and national managers based on role views.
IQSMS has reduced the time and costs associate with traveling to 535 facilities for data reporting, eliminated need to aggregate paper reports, reduced the need for expensive equipment, improved compliance in monthly reporting and has inspired confidence by rural healthcare workers that their results were accurately reported.
For the period from Jan –Dec 2009, 9867 total reports were submitted and 9400 reports were successfully validated. As the project takes advantage of mobile phones already owned by health workers, the training requirements are relatively low.
PMTCT facilities providing services to all mothers, fathers and children to infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The plan is to scale up to include more PMTCT sites supported by AIDSRelief, the NGO we work with. The IQSMs has been demonstrated to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and we are thinking of introducing the system to other regions not supported by AIDSRelief.
IQSMS Locations
Tanzania MOH and donors introduced reporting requirements for PMTCT (preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS) facilities to submit monthly reports to the district and regional levels for progam monitoring and decision making. Futures Group is responsible for collecting reports from PMTCT facilities across four regions. Sites are remote and there is no Internet, and no computers.
To meet the technical and budgetary challenges we developed IQSMS, an open source, freely available SMS reporting tool monitoring and evaluation data collection, to enable facilites to report on PMTCT indicators. IQSMS is used to track program activities at PMTCT sites in rural Tanzania using basic SMS mobile phone technology.
IQSMS is a freely available, software using SMS data in a predetermined format. Information is sent to a dedicated central laptop connected to Motorola mobile phones. The IQSMS software aggregates incoming SMS reports into an SQL database. Automated data quality checks, business rules and immediate notifications are sent to users ensuring that only validated data is added to the database. Aggregated PMTCT data is instantly available to district, regional and national managers based on role views.
FINALIST AND HONORABLE MENTION IN STOCKHOM CHALLENGE AWARD 2010
International Quality Short Message Services focus on development and implementation of a software technology that uses mobile phone to report data to a dedicated centralized computer. This will help coordinating medical care in various part of Tanzania. It is a project with great impact and potential for transferability particularly as the costs of telecom tend to decline with volume. It is a case of e-health, more clearly mobile e-health. International Quality Short Message Services makes health services available. a service which must be recognized. Congratulations.
The software uses SMS data in a predetermined format, sent to a dedicated central laptop connected to a Motorola mobile phone. The IQSMS software records incoming SMS reports into an SQL database. Automated data quality checks, business rules and immediate notifications are sent to users ensuring that only validated data is added to database. Aggregated PMTCT data is instantly available to district, regional and national managers based on role views.
IQSMS has reduced the time and costs associate with traveling to 535 facilities for data reporting, eliminated need to aggregate paper reports, reduced the need for expensive equipment, improved compliance in monthly reporting and has inspired confidence by rural healthcare workers that their results were accurately reported.
For the period from Jan –Dec 2009, 9867 total reports were submitted and 9400 reports were successfully validated. As the project takes advantage of mobile phones already owned by health workers, the training requirements are relatively low.
PMTCT facilities providing services to all mothers, fathers and children to infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The plan is to scale up to include more PMTCT sites supported by AIDSRelief, the NGO we work with. The IQSMs has been demonstrated to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and we are thinking of introducing the system to other regions not supported by AIDSRelief.
Where can we find the application's details, API and source code
Hi,
I've visited the Application's website as suggested above, but there's only mention of other solutions by the Future's Group but not on IQSMS. Is there anywhere where i can get more information on this solution, access it's API and even it's source code for compilation and installation on my computer?
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