Qualcomm has joined
forces with five organizations for the improvement of maternal and child health
in Nigeria, tagged CliniPAK360 Mobile Health Application, reports ITRealms.
It was gathered
by ITRealms that the collaboration was on development and deploy wireless of electronic
medical record system to reduce the country's high maternal and infant
mortality rate.
Happening at the
ongoing Mobile World Congress, ITRealms learnt that Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Wireless Reach
initiative partnered Vecna Cares Charitable Trust, the nonprofit arm of Vecna
Technologies; InStrat Global Health Solutions, a turnkey health care solutions
provider; Etisalat Nigeria, a Nigerian telecommunications operator; Nigeria’s
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), a part of the Federal
Ministry of Health; and Evidence for Action, a campaign to ensure Africa’s
mothers and babies survive pregnancy and childbirth, teamed up to develop and
deploy a wireless, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system for clinics
throughout three states within the NPHCDA.
ITRealms reports that this brings about a paperless, mobile patient registry to midwives
throughout rural Nigeria.
The CliniPAK360
project, ITRealms gathered, is aimed at reducing the country’s high maternal and infant
mortality rates.
ITRealms recalls that Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and has maternal and
infant mortality rates that are among the world’s highest.
For instance, the
United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates in The World Factbook that Nigeria experienced approximately 630 maternal deaths per
100,000 live births in 2010 and approximately 73 infant deaths per 1,000 live
births in 2013.
In comparison, the maternal death rate in
developed countries is approximately nine per 100,000.
Further, ITRealms reports that currently, NPHCDA midwives record patient data in paper notebooks
and Regional Health Officers travel to the clinics to review the reports for
accuracy.
According to
Country Manager, Qualcomm for West Africa, Mr. Alex Dadson this will lighten
the burden and increase accuracies and efficiencies, whereas the Wireless
Reach-funded project features a cloud-based electronic medical record system
based on Vecna Cares’ CliniPAK software and 3G-enabled tablets powered by
Qualcomm Snapdragon processors to streamline and automate the in-field data
capture and reporting process and help improve health outcomes.
He explained
that as part of the project, each midwife uses a tablet to record patient data
at the point of care.
“The data is transmitted
wirelessly via Etisalat’s 3G mobile network to the CliniPAK central server,
which aggregates and synchronizes the data with clinic-based CliniPAK units,”
he said.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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