A major problem in resource-constrained areas is the high mortality rate among children. Child birth registrations in these areas are non-existent or done using an outdated system, this makes it hard for doctors and nurses working in such areas to get an overview of the health status of children. The lack of information about the health status of children in resource-constrained areas leads to many children not receiving the vaccinations and vitamins needed in order to survive.
Using technology designed to assist the doctors and the nurses gives them the tools to be able to receive the information needed in order to take the necessary steps to prevent high child mortality rate. To improve the health care in a resource–constrained area like Uganda, the non-profit organization Shifo has developed software called “MyChild”, were the nurses in Uganda can register the health status of the children in a database. The software helps the doctors and the nurses keep track of the treatment status of the children and thereby enable them to administer the correct vaccines and vitamins, thereby increasing the children’s survival rate.
This report describes how an add-on was created for the MyChild system. The add-on was developed as a stand–alone application and was primarily designed to be used as a simple message delivery system. Enabling the functionality to deliver work related information from the administration or software related updates from the developers to the nurses, through the MyChild system.
The add-on was developed by using selective parts of the project development method, Scrum, which was adapted for the use of a smaller group consisting of two developers. With Sprint, tasks and continuous updates through meetings, the project allowed for active change in the goal outline. Using a semi structured interview method, feedback about the add-on was received and the answers from the interviews could then be analyzed, thereby inspiring further advance of the add-on.
The result from the presented work is a first version prototype that can send messages from a database to be shown in a rectangular window along with a corresponding picture. The prototype is a stand–alone application that can be modified to show the messages with different corresponding pictures and during different time durations. The main functionality of the first version prototype fulfills the requirements set by the customer, Shifo, but its implementation into the Shifo system is not presented in this thesis.
The study through interviews presented in this thesis show that the message delivery add-on could be a useful addition, not only in health care, but also in other professions. Its functionality gives the possibility for users to receive work related information without it being a distraction or a hindrance in their daily work.
Source: KTH
Authors: Bea, Anders | Heydari, Aydin