ICT Toolsets

OSI’s grant to Ninth Bridge will fund a planning project toward the development of an open source clinical/patient tracking application to meet the needs of health care providers caring for HIV/AIDS patients across the developing world.

Currently, large numbers of front line care providers in this sector are without basic patient tracking/management capabilities. Considering the staggering burdens under which these typically under-resourced providers work, this lack of basic patient data management capabilities is a further drain on their efficiency and effectiveness. These management practices also severely curtail any ability to collect and use data for information sharing, trends analysis, and advocacy and policy-making purposes. Commercial and some open source solutions exist, but these have been developed primarily for US markets, and are overly directed at insurance reporting and billing processes that are not appropriate for the developing world.

Ninth Bridge will undertake to thoroughly assess, in collaboration with the community of intended users—focusing on sub-Saharan Africa—the range of tools currently available, as well as the unmet needs and opportunities in the area of clinical patient management. The final report will not only provide a comprehensive list of existing tools, but will define the application requirements and functionality primarily through engagement with front line health workers and their supporters in HIV/AIDS affected areas.

International |  www.engenderhealth.org/