2017 ICT4D Conference

The adherence of healthcare workers to clinical algorithms is key to ensure patients receive the life-saving interventions they need. However, improving the performance of healthcare workers in developing country settings has proven for decades to be a challenging problem.

The Integrated e-Diagnostic Approach (IeDA, http://ieda-project.org/) was developed to significantly improve the performance of healthcare workers in using national guidelines for the management of sick children. The intervention is currently implemented in 270+ clinics in Burkina Faso and has been used by over 1,800 healthcare workers to perform more than 900,000 consultations in the last 2 and half years, with an overall use of the tool in 80% of the consultations.

IeDA provides healthcare workers a mobile application that walks them through the national guideline in each consultation (based on WHO’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses), helping them adhere to the protocol and record the data which feeds into the algorithm providing the final classification and treatment. In addition, healthcare workers have written and media aids to help them identify signs and communicate complex concepts to the caretakers. Data is transmitted to central servers and to the national health management information system (DHIS2), and monthly reports are sent to regional and district medical teams. The impact of the strategy is being evaluated through a randomized clinical trial, and preliminary data is showing promising results.

Currently the team is focused on (i) continuing to improve the use experience, (ii) increasing the use of data by district teams and (iii) scaling up a e-training module for continuous learning and feedback on clinical skills.

During the session the different aspects of the approach will be presented, with special emphasis on the challenges related to uptake by healthcare workers and roll out of the mobile tool at scale in a rural setting.