mobile phones for continuing medical education (cme
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ACA (formerly RATN) is an alliance of 37 Member Institutions working in 12 countries in Africa.
Established in 1997 as a Project between UoNand UoM,
ACA’s mission :Through partnerships, provide sustainable capacity solutions to improve lives in Africa.
ACA’s strategic pillars :HSS, CSS & PPP. ACA’s areas of focus:SIDS, NCDs and HER ACA implemented this project in collaboration
with its member AMREF as the lead.
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Problem Statement The Opportunity Objectives of the intervention The Process Findings Challenges Recommendations and Conclusions Acknowledgement Partner with Us
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The constant flow of new evidence demands that HCWs receive CME in order to deliver quality care. Unfortunately, this does not effectively happen because it requires frequent & expensive out-of-work-station training.
Instead, outdated methods or remote consultation with experts on HIV & AIDs management is used; which has very little effect on improving the capabilities of HCWs (Farmer et al, 2008; cf. Haines et al., 2007).
The severe shortage of HCWs further compounds the situation, especially for underserved settings.
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The extensive accessibility &use of mobile phones presents a significant opportunity to surmount development challenges in health and other sectors.
As at March 2012, the mobile phone penetration in Kenya was 74% & is expected to surpass 80% due to cheaper gadget prices & calling costs.
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To strengthen the Capacity of CHWs in Migoricounty Nyanza province to diagnose & manage HIV & AIDs related conditions through Mobile Learning (m-learning).
To design, develop, implement & evaluate the role of mobile technology in assisting health workers to diagnose & manage HIV/AIDs related conditions in Migori county Nyanza province.
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1. Capacity gaps assessment - determined the gaps that resulted in remote consultation by service providers in lower level health facilities .
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Step 1
• Capacity gaps assessment ( Thematic areas included: Choice of ARVs, Discerning of clinical presentations, Diagnosis of opportunistic infections, Identification of and management of drug toxicity and pictorial illustrations of the common HIV and AIDS associated lesions)
Step 2 • Development of a mobile phone application/algorithm
Step 3• Installation of the system to mobile phones of 32 HCWs and
linkage to online AMREF ART Hub
Step 4 • Training of end-users (HCWs) and Commissioning of the usage of the application (Users advised to use expert only when in need)
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Mo
nito
ring
and
Evalu
ation
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Participant gender: 19 (59.4%) M & 13 (40.6%) F. Cadres of HCWs: Nurses 18 (56.3%) & Clinical medical
officers 14/32 (43.7%). Ranking of usefulness of the application: choice of ARV
(35.0%), followed by pictorial illustrations. Majority (90.6% )agreed that Access to mobile phone
assisted applications can transform rural facilities HIV/AIDS Management
75.0% did consult the HIV/AIDS expert to make decisions (but to a lower degree) while remaining (25.0%) never consulted at all during this period
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frequency of consultation also reduced from weekly (at baseline) to occasionally; out of 24 participants who sought experts’ opinion, only one par ticipant did it daily.
There was a significant increase in knowledge when compared with the baseline study, One respondent said “... I no longer worried as long as I had the phone, I will quickly scroll through just to be sure of my decision, and after some time I mastered what to do....”
When the DASCO officer was asked if there was a reduction, he replied that, “… they no longer receive the obvious calls……. Of late we only receive real cases that are challenging of which some we have to research before we reply…” He concluded that “…the m-health has empowered our health providers; they are now knowledgeable on HIV/AIDS management….”
88% of participants rated the application as good and excellent.
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Most common challenge was operational difficulty (37%) such as connectivity when accessing the online hub.
This was followed by mechanical/gadget challenge (17%); of which phone battery was the main gadget challenge (57.1%)
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The use of mobile phones to build the capacity of health service providers (m-Learning) has shown a potential worth scaling up. The mHealth solution reduced remote consultation, however the following needs to be considered: -
thematic features were created based on the need of Migori County after a needs assessment; this may vary from region to region.
There is also a need to continuously update the algorithm created with new evidence on HIV/AIDS management
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AMREF Sida and CIDA for funding ACA’s INSTANT
program through which this intervention was implemented.
Ministry of Health (MoH) in Migori County and former Nyanza Province
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Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA)P.O Box 16035 -00100
Email: [email protected]: www.africacapacityalliance.org
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