This past week, we heard from a worker in a small community based health organization in East Africa. She was wondering if the Brigada family has ever listed any computer-based approaches for keeping track of medical records. She underscored, “The program needs to be easy to use without a lot of training and configurable so we can track the specific parameters related to this condition.” Surely, in all the thousands of CHE workers in the world, there’s at least one community that has come up with a good answer to this question? If you have one, please click “Comment” below the web-version of this item. The Brigada participant in East Africa will be very grateful.
Check out Open Data Kit.
http://opendatakit.org/
Also you can check out:
SEMR (an acronym for Simple Electronic Medical Records).
SEMR
This works in 50 different languages
uses fingerprints for patientID
Runs onsite, but records are backed up offsite with the Internet is working.
A free online program would be PracticeFusion. Of course, if you can’t get online this would be unusable. We use this at our small naturopath’s office and it is very good.
There are various kinds of medical records information systems relative to specific application areas and scale. Two of the more common types in East Africa are Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) and Patient Records Management Systems (PRMS).
Generally a HMIS is used for managing and monitoring performance of a health network or system. The most common national level HMIS is the DHIS (see links below) and DHIS2.
A PRMS is generally used for tracking patient visits and managing care at individual health facilities, like clinics or hospitals (links further below).
There are many other kinds of health information systems too, like human resources information systems (HRIS), procurement/logistics applications, many new mobile options (like ODK mentioned above) and others.
Below are some resources for HMIS & PRMS that are currently being used in various EA countries:
For Health Management Information Systems (HMIS)
Information about HISP:
http://www.hisp.org
Information about DHIS2:
http://www.dhis2.org/
Link to download DHIS (msExcel-based):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dhis/
Link to download DHIS2 (web-based):
https://launchpad.net/dhis2
There might also be some advantage to connecting through country level HMIS systems, for instance:
Ethiopia:
http://ethiopia.usaid.gov/programs/global-health-initiative/projects/health-management-information-system-hmis
Kenya:
https://hiskenya.org/dhis-web-commons/security/login.action;jsessionid=F239B8412AD4800F6116F694F7145A7B
South Sudan:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2F41.73.201.42%2Fpresentations%2FNorah%2520-%2520South%2520Sudan.pptx&ei=zgT3UZmyE4jB4APcq4H4AQ&usg=AFQjCNFYzDmVD4_o112n1rkKgYCBOJ6L2g&sig2=81Wv9TCSGd5X7F7BYx0foQ&bvm=bv.49967636,d.dmg
Tanzania:
http://www.moh.go.tz/index.php/joomla-forums/district-health-information-system-dhis
Uganda:
hmis1.health.go.ug/
http://www.ucmb.co.ug/data%20on%20ucmb/Reports/ARTICLES/Use%20of%20HMIS%20-%20UCMB%20experience.pdf
Rwanda:
https://hmis.moh.gov.rw/hmis/dhis-web-commons/security/login.action;jsessionid=B57235F538FE2D72D1B6406A23758FDC\
Burundi:
http://factsreports.revues.org/2351
http://www.ghi.gov/documents/organization/175128.pdf
For Patient Records Management Information Systems (PRMS)
Information on AfyaPro:
http://afyamtandaonetwork.ning.com/video/the-use-of-hmis-afyapro-in-health-facilities-lake-zone
Information on Care2X:
http://www.care2x.org/
Information on Open MRS:
http://openmrs.org/
Wow Scott. What a great, comprehensive reply! Thanks!