Cargando…

A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care

BACKGROUND: Rise of conflict, extreme weather events, and pandemics have led to larger displaced populations worldwide. Displaced populations have unique acute and chronic health needs that must be met by low-resource health systems. Electronic health records (EHRs) have been shown to improve health...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ashworth, Henry, Ebrahim, Senan, Ebrahim, Hassaan, Bhaiwala, Zahra, Chilazi, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8881778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35147509
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/33848
_version_ 1784659555020439552
author Ashworth, Henry
Ebrahim, Senan
Ebrahim, Hassaan
Bhaiwala, Zahra
Chilazi, Michael
author_facet Ashworth, Henry
Ebrahim, Senan
Ebrahim, Hassaan
Bhaiwala, Zahra
Chilazi, Michael
author_sort Ashworth, Henry
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Rise of conflict, extreme weather events, and pandemics have led to larger displaced populations worldwide. Displaced populations have unique acute and chronic health needs that must be met by low-resource health systems. Electronic health records (EHRs) have been shown to improve health outcomes in displaced populations, but need to be adapted to meet the constraints of these health systems. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this viewpoint is to describe the development and deployment of an EHR designed to care for displaced populations in low-resource settings. METHODS: Using a human-centered design approach, we conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with patients, health care providers, and administrators in Lebanon and Jordan to identify the essential EHR features. These features, including modular workflows, multilingual interfaces, and offline-first capabilities, led to the development of the Hikma Health EHR, which has been deployed in Lebanon and Nicaragua. RESULTS: We report the successes and challenges from 12 months of Hikma Health EHR deployment in a mobile clinic providing care to Syrian refugees in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Successes include the EHR’s ability to (1) increase clinical efficacy by providing detailed patient records, (2) be adaptable to the threats of COVID-19, and (3) improve organizational planning. Lessons learned include technical fixes to methods of identifying patients through name or their medical record ID. CONCLUSIONS: As the number of displaced people continues to rise globally, it is imperative that solutions are created to help maximize the health care they receive. Free, open-sourced, and adaptable EHRs can enable organizations to better provide for displaced populations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8881778
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher JMIR Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88817782022-03-10 A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care Ashworth, Henry Ebrahim, Senan Ebrahim, Hassaan Bhaiwala, Zahra Chilazi, Michael JMIR Med Inform Viewpoint BACKGROUND: Rise of conflict, extreme weather events, and pandemics have led to larger displaced populations worldwide. Displaced populations have unique acute and chronic health needs that must be met by low-resource health systems. Electronic health records (EHRs) have been shown to improve health outcomes in displaced populations, but need to be adapted to meet the constraints of these health systems. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this viewpoint is to describe the development and deployment of an EHR designed to care for displaced populations in low-resource settings. METHODS: Using a human-centered design approach, we conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with patients, health care providers, and administrators in Lebanon and Jordan to identify the essential EHR features. These features, including modular workflows, multilingual interfaces, and offline-first capabilities, led to the development of the Hikma Health EHR, which has been deployed in Lebanon and Nicaragua. RESULTS: We report the successes and challenges from 12 months of Hikma Health EHR deployment in a mobile clinic providing care to Syrian refugees in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Successes include the EHR’s ability to (1) increase clinical efficacy by providing detailed patient records, (2) be adaptable to the threats of COVID-19, and (3) improve organizational planning. Lessons learned include technical fixes to methods of identifying patients through name or their medical record ID. CONCLUSIONS: As the number of displaced people continues to rise globally, it is imperative that solutions are created to help maximize the health care they receive. Free, open-sourced, and adaptable EHRs can enable organizations to better provide for displaced populations. JMIR Publications 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8881778/ /pubmed/35147509 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/33848 Text en ©Henry Ashworth, Senan Ebrahim, Hassaan Ebrahim, Zahra Bhaiwala, Michael Chilazi. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (https://medinform.jmir.org), 11.02.2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Informatics, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Viewpoint
Ashworth, Henry
Ebrahim, Senan
Ebrahim, Hassaan
Bhaiwala, Zahra
Chilazi, Michael
A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title_full A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title_fullStr A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title_full_unstemmed A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title_short A Free, Open-Source, Offline Digital Health System for Refugee Care
title_sort free, open-source, offline digital health system for refugee care
topic Viewpoint
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8881778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35147509
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/33848
work_keys_str_mv AT ashworthhenry afreeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT ebrahimsenan afreeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT ebrahimhassaan afreeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT bhaiwalazahra afreeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT chilazimichael afreeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT ashworthhenry freeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT ebrahimsenan freeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT ebrahimhassaan freeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT bhaiwalazahra freeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare
AT chilazimichael freeopensourceofflinedigitalhealthsystemforrefugeecare