automation

e-IMCI: Improving Pediatric Health Care in Low-Income Countries

Posted by LeighJaschke on Jul 07, 2009
e-IMCI: Improving Pediatric Health Care in Low-Income Countries data sheet 2702 Views
Author: 
DeRenzi, Brian; Lesh, Neal; Parikh, Tapan; Sims, Clayton; Mitchell, Marc; Maokola, Werner; Chemba, Mwajuma; Hamisi, Yuna; Schellenberg, David; Borriello, Gaetano
Publication Date: 
Jan 2008
Publication Type: 
Report/White paper
Abstract: 

Every year almost 10 million children die before reaching
the age of five despite the fact that two-thirds of these
deaths could be prevented by effective low-cost
interventions. To combat this, the World Health
Organization (WHO) and UNICEF developed the
Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)
treatment algorithms.
In Tanzania, IMCI is the national policy for the treatment
of childhood illness. This paper describes e-IMCI, a system
for administering the IMCI protocol using a PDA. Our
preliminary investigation in rural Tanzania suggests that e-
IMCI is almost as fast as the common practice and
potentially improves care by increasing adherence to the
IMCI protocols. Additionally, we found clinicians could
quickly be trained to use e-IMCI and were very enthusiastic
about using it in the future.