ICT4MPOWER: ICT for Medical Community Empowerment
Ugandan Participatory Poverty Assessment reports have identified ill-health as the leading cause and consequence of poverty in Uganda, with priority given to improve preventive health care and commodities for basic curative care. The project initiators include the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of ICT who approached SPIDER to provide expertise and technical support to improve health service delivery in the rural communities of Uganda using Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Recruitment of educated medical practitioners is difficult in the rural areas as the higher wages and living conditions of Kampala and larger towns are more appealing. Hence ICT can be utilized to improve current workflow processes in community health units and bring needed healthcare services to the point of need.
The proof of concept project “ICT4MPOWER” aims to increase the effectiveness of the Ugandan health system and empower Community Health Workers in the Isingiro district and Mbarara region for better health outcomes of the rural population. This will be achieved by developing an all compassing electronic health record and referral system, unique client ID system for the approximate 400,000 population of the Isingiro district, as well as strategic delivery of eLearning and tele-consultation. The development of the project and application has been a multi-stakeholder endeavor where roles of project partners and stakeholders are clearly identified. As the sole government department in charge of the health care of all Ugandans, the Ministry of Health (Uganda) was chosen by the project partners to provide the overall leadership and direction of project activities in Uganda. The Ministry of ICT (Uganda) is an important collaborating institution as development intends to draw upon current and potential future ICT resources and infrastructure. The UCC, which is the regulator of the telecom industry, manages the Rural Communications Development Fund and has committed to provide last mile infrastructure for the implementation of the ICT4MPOWER project. Besides collaborating with the College of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Computing and IT at the Makerere University a number of Swedish partners have also been engaged to support the development of the project.
The technical expertise from Sweden will be provided by the Biomedical Engineering Department at Karolinska University Hospital (Karolinska), Karolinska Institutet and the Royal Institute of Technology, as well as Ericsson AB (Research Dept. in Sweden, local offices in South Africa and Uganda). In addition to this, Mbarara University Teaching Hospital, which is one of the 11 referral hospitals in Uganda, and highest up in the referral chain in this project, is an important partner that will provide referral services and further technical support for all the project outcomes. The Isingiro District Local Government is the administrative body for the geographical area chosen as the project site and they will provide local support for the project activities.
Local operators and other organisations involved in ICT4D in Uganda have approached the project partners to give further support. Discussions are currently underway with potential partners.
