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Development of a Low-Cost Electronic Data Collection Tool for a Health Facility Survey: Lessons Learned in the Field
No full textThe process of selecting and developing a data collection tool for a health facility survey study is described. Several methodologies were considered, and an Android app development platform was chosen to fulfil the requirements of the study. The platform was adopted for its low resource cost, low capacity requirement, efficient and effective community responsiveness and progressive inclusion of functionalities. Data loss was 3.4%, with proposed contributing factors such as network intermittency, malware leading to disuse (necessitating manual encoding), and asynchrony of system interfaces, though the percentage of loss attributable to each factor is indeterminate. Several considerations need to be taken into account prior to employing ICTs for research, namely, requirements of the study, resources available, and how each option being considered fulfils the requirements and proves sustainable given the resources. Planning, risk assessment, and maintenance are important phases in the development of the data collection tool
Women in Science and Engineering: Students, Professionals and Authors
Get PDFIn recent years there have been published several studies and articles showing numbers of published articles in various scientific disciplines over the decades and analysing ratio of men and women authors. There is a big difference among disciplines. In the paper we will present and analyse these differences. There is not only difference in the total number of papers and articles with women as authors but also whether there are only women authors, women as first or last author, etc. In engineering an important area is also represented by patents. The ratio of men and women in this particular area is much more striking. Going to academic institution there are interesting analyses concerning percentage of full professors. There is significant decrease of number of women from undergraduate study over postgraduate study, lower positions in research up to senior researchers or full professors. These numbers vary across continents, e.g. less full professors women in European Union than in the United States. We will present information about percentage of women researchers in the field related to telemedicine and eHealth, in particular medicine, nursing care in contrast to engineering and medical informatics. The difference is also significant. These numbers correlate to a certain extent with the authorship
The Need for a Strategy for Telehealth
No full textThe Brazilian Telehealth Program has been an important step towards the widespread use of Telehealth in the country as a strategy for the construction and consolidation of Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), the Brazilian National Health System. The Programme created a culture of collaboration and problem solving by connecting together health workers in need of advice from experts who could provide evidence-based answers in a timely fashion. More recently, Telehealth procedures and delivery centres became a formal part of SUS, making it possible for Telehealth Centres to be accredited, providing Telehealth procedures as a formal service to SUS, thus allowing for payment for those services. As such initiatives evolve, it is important to revisit the recent experience, evaluate the potential that Telehealth technologies bring, draw inspiration from the experience of other countries and plan actions to ensure that Telehealth be widely and suitably used in Brazil, by both public and private sectors. Telehealth is an important means to expand the reach and the regional scope of health services and increase the availability of specialised care, thus strengthening the principles of universality and integrality of care, equity of access and even administrative decentralisation. This paper explores ways to creating a vision for the use of Telehealth in an integrated way
Impact of Telehealth Training on Health Care Providers’ Knowledge in HIV/AIDS Care: A Mixed Methods Evaluation.
Get PDFHealthcare providers (HCPs) serving HIV-infected patients in rural and underserved areas have limited access to continuing education. A telehealth training programme, Project Extension for Community Healthcare OUtcomes (ECHO), was implemented to enhance knowledge and skills of these HCPs in HIV care. A mixed methods approach including quantitative (multilevel modelling and meta-analysis) and qualitative (thematic analysis) components was used to evaluate the impact of ECHO on HCPs' knowledge. Over three years, 98 training sessions were conducted and 654 HCPs attended. ECHO was associated with an increase in knowledge. Change in HCP knowledge differed within the ECHO sessions, not across sessions. Four HCP-level factors (achievement of self-stated objective for attending the session, amount of time for the session, intention to make practice changes,and number of sessions attended) and one session-level factor (language used in the session) were associated with the change in knowledge. While increasing knowledge, skills and learning were frequently and intensely cited as objectives for attending ECHO, provider-based communication emerged as the key to converting the acquired knowledge into practice. Besides communication, most HCPs expressed intention to improve patient clinical management including linking, engaging, and retaining patients in care. Lack of time to focus on HIV/AIDS care, inadequate skills to convey medical information to patients, and patients' lack of insurance to pay for recommended care emerged as barriers to implementincontent learned. Implications for research are discussed
Implementation of Telemedicine Services in Lower-Middle Income Countries: Lessons for the Philippines
Get PDFRegardless of the promising potential of telemedicine to address healthcare problems, especially in lower-middle income countries, its success rate has been unsatisfactory and many telemedicine services fail to sustain their implementation shortly after initial funding or after a pilot phase. Therefore, it is important to document existing models of telemedicine implementation in these countries, to identify commonalities and extract experiences that would be useful for implementers, policy makers and future researchers. This review seeks to review and describe the experience of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) in implementing telemedicine services. Evidence extracted from the included studies were analysed through a narrative synthesis which suggests a multi-sectoral approach for implementing telemedicine. It highlights the importance of education, financing options, policy, technology, governance, and partnership, in the wider picture of a sustainable telemedicine implementation among developing countries such as the Philippines. Moreover, the literature reveals both top-down and bottom-up approach for successful telemedicine implementation. These approaches include strengthening the local health workers and integrating telemedicine into the health system. Studies included in this review have been helpful, but there is an obvious lack of studies with high level of evidence that can yield generalisable, thus findings must be inferred with prudence. Even so, this review described and summarised the data which allowed description of factors and lessons in the implementation of telemedicine in LMICs
Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS Programmes in the Ministry of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe church is one of the oldest Pentecostal denominations in Zimbabwe tracing its origins as far back as 1915. She claims a membership of two million across the country. Like other Pentecostal denominations that broke away from her, the AFM in Zimbabwe remains exposed to the risks and vulnerabilities of HIV and AIDS. This study made a case for HIV and AIDS mainstreaming in the AFM in Zimbabwe. The study was predominantly qualitative and relied on document analysis. Relevant sources of data were identified and critically examined. The study found that HIV and AIDS mainstreaming among Pentecostal denominations is an uphill task because some Pentecostal preachers claim they can cure HIV and AIDS, yet government and other stakeholders firmly established that there is no cure for HIV and AIDS. Another impeding factor was that HIV and AIDS in some Pentecostal quarters is regarded as a demon. The demon perception encourages stigma and discrimination against HIV infected persons. Although negative perceptions of HIV and AIDS are evident, some Pentecostals still encourage biomedical cure for HIV and AIDS while at the same time they embrace faith as an important aspect for coping with HIV and AIDS. That the AFM in Zimbabwe, like other Pentecostal denominations has comparative advantages that put it at a better position to mainstream HIV and AIDS was firmly established. Although, Pentecostal denominations like other organizations struggle due to loss of members through sickness, death, funerals and reduced performances owing to HIV and AIDS evidence showed that they are slowing up to HIV and AIDS mainstreaming. Owing to stigma and discrimination which is rampant among Pentecostals, the study concludes that not mainstreaming is not an option for the AFM in Zimbabwe as the process is not resource-intensive which puts the denomination at a better position to effectively operate in the face of HIV and AIDS while at the same time fulfilling its mandate
Childhood Sex Education Facilitating Zero HIV Infection
Get PDFThe continual prevalence of HIV and AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa leading to high rate AIDS related deaths indicates that in spite of tremendous efforts made so far, humanity is struggling with the epidemic. Families have to invest more in sex education of their children/wards. Many families and faith-based communities continue to shy away from critical discussion around the discourse of sex education for minors. Often the commonest attempts made in line with sex education have always been to educate the youth who are in their teens, but what happens to those who are outside the age bracket of being teenagers. This paper raises a serious concern that aspiring for zero HIV infection means revisiting families and faith-based communities’ commitment to sex education of children. In this regard, one of the preoccupying issue is; at what age should children be exposed to in-depth sex education leading them to understand the implications of the vitality and nuance of sexual activity, which happens to be one of the major sources of HIV transmission? In other words, children as well as adults need to be well-informed of sex and sexuality related issues to facilitate appropriate decision making on matters of sexual activity. Therefore, now is the time to take children’s sexual education serious
Exploring the Educational Engagement Practices of Disadvantaged Students at a South African University
Get PDFThis article discusses the educational engagement practices of disadvantaged first-generation students at a South African university. Based on qualitative research conducted in the interpretive tradition and using interviews and focus groups with selected students, this article explores how disadvantaged students engage with the education and support structures at the university. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990; 2000) analytical tools of field, capital and habitus, it explores how students are able to produce practices and dispositions to develop their educational engagement within the university. The article highlights the varied and uneven field conditions of the university in terms of which the students had to navigate their university studies. Their responses to these conditions were strategically directed towards narrowly focusing on, and maximizing, their academic commitments to their studies. This resulted in minimal and halting engagement with the university’s social support services. The article demonstrates the significance of the students’ complex engagements with their lecturers, active and productive interaction with their student peers and the academic support offered by the university’s Teaching and Learning unit. These were central to their engagement practices at the university. The article illustrates the students’ acquisition of strategic emergent academic dispositions in an uneven university field. These dispositions, we argue, are crucial to them establishing productive educational paths at the university
Policy for Prevention of Sexual Assault on Campus: Higher Education Students’ Perspectives
Get PDFCrucial to genuine transformation at higher education institutions is a commitment to eradicating sexual violence and creating safe, democratic spaces within which the institutions’ broader goals may be realised. Sexual assault is a serious concern at higher education institutions and requires a comprehensive approach to address it. The aim of this article is to elucidate students’ perspectives on the need for a separate sexual assault policy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Gaining the perspectives of students serves as a catalyst for sexual assault policy formulation and institutional development. In this article we draw on data generated within a larger project that focuses on addressing gender violence at UKZN. We report on a study which is located at a selected UKZN campus, and utilised an online survey which was distributed via a hyperlink accessed through student emails. Analysis is based on the responses of 265 undergraduate students in the School of Education. The findings suggest that higher education students view a sexual assault policy as a fundamental institutional obligation that has the potential to educate the university community about how to identify, prevent, report on and deal with sexual assault. Students suggest that the existing policy on sexual harassment is inadequate as a form of protection, poorly enforced, and has weak reporting mechanisms. They stress an urgent need for development of a specific sexual assault policy at UKZN that is widely communicated and engaged with. The development of a sexual assault policy which has significance for victims and (potential) perpetrators can be informed by considering students’ reflections on the personal, social, cultural and institutional elements that increase their vulnerability to sexual offences