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Information system for community health workers in Ethiopia and Malawi

Ethiopia started implementing a community health information system from 2013. It is used by the Health Extension Workers in the country, who carries out basic medical services to the rural population. They work in a small health post with some equipment, vaccines and medicines, and they visit households to care for patients and promote healthy behaviour, including water and sanitation.

Each health extension worker collaborates with around 10 volunteer community workers, each elected in their own village to assist the health extension worker.

The health extension workers were equipped with the digital information system eCHIS 6-8 years ago, where households are registered.

Bildet kan inneholde: font, t skjorte.

Android apps for Community health workers 

eCHIS is a locally developed. It stores data that should be summarized in numbers and exported to the national health information system, but such reports have not appeared yet.

Malawi currently implements such a community health information system, which is configured on DHIS2 with Android devices.

The master thesis should compare the two systems in order for them to learn from each other. To carry out the comparison, you should take the Malawi system and revise it such that it replicates the Ethiopian system as closely as possible, and add possible reports currently lacking in eCHIS. The revision should be done through reconfiguring the metadata in the system without programming.

Thereafter, you should have health workers in Ethiopia at different levels test the replica and collect their opinions, suggestions and critique of both the eCHIS and the replica.

Critical issues to address includes how data on/from volunteers are registered, how data on households/families/individuals/water sources/villages are structured, reports to all levels in the health services, and export of data to the national health information system.

Your work will build on theses carried out by current master students.

The thesis will be carried out in close collaboration with University of Gondar, Ethiopia and University of Malawi.

 

Relevant courses:

IN5330 – Health Management Information Systems

IN5390 – ICT for Development: Building a Better World?

 IN5320 – Development in platform ecosystems

The thesis requires fieldwork in Ethiopia of approximately one month duration. This fieldwork should be carried out during the third semester of the master study, hence it is strongly recommended to complete all coursework during the two first semesters. The fieldwork will be supported by the project Striving for Excellence through Action Research and Capacity building in eHealth (SEARCH)- NORPART-2018/10032, see Student exchange programmes

Students from the programmes

  • Informatics: Design, Use, Interaction
  • Informatics: Programming and System Architecture
  • Digitalization in the Health Sector

are welcome to this thesis project. The thesis fits well for 2 students collaborating. Collaboration with research students at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia, is also an option. 

Emneord: DHIS2,  Ethiopia
Publisert 25. aug. 2022 13:45 - Sist endret 16. aug. 2023 07:54

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