A Maternal Health Care Collaboration System for Village Health Teams (VHTS): A Case Study of Kalangala District, Uganda.
ABSTRACT:
In Uganda there is lack of quality health care services in rural communities where the expectant women live, Village health teams (VHTs) support expectant mothers in these communities by providing information about maternal health care, monitoring the expectant women’s pregnancy status and providing information on how to access antenatal care services in their community.
When an expectant woman shifts from one community to another in the district it is difficult for VHTs to continue supporting that expectant mother because of lack of shared information, this communication collaboration gap can be bridged with the development of maternal health care collaboration system.
This project scope was undertaken in Kalangala District. The district is coterminous with the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria and does not have territory on mainland Uganda which makes it a rural area. The objectives of the project were fulfilled using several tools and techniques.
Questionnaires and observations were used to collect data for objective one. The project was designed using data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams in objective two. The proposed system was developed using HTML, CSS, Java Script, Query and MYSQL to address objective three. In objective four, the developed system was tested using unite testing system and integration testing.
The system was validated by taking it to the intended users to confirm whether it meets their requirements. A validation questionnaire was provided to the users and results were analyzed using excel spreadsheets.
From the results of validation, it was realized that the users of the maternal health care collaboration system confirmed that it; authenticates users (10 %); is easy to learn and use (05%); interfaces have data input validation checks (10%); can enable users to interact (35%) and easily share information (35%).
Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that the developed maternal health care collaboration system should be adopted and deployed for effective communication and information sharing in health facilities of Kalangala District.
In Uganda there is lack of quality health care services in rural communities where the expectant women live, Village health teams (VHTs) support expectant mothers in these communities by providing information about maternal health care, monitoring the expectant women’s pregnancy status and providing information on how to access antenatal care services in their community.
When an expectant woman shifts from one community to another in the district it is difficult for VHTs to continue supporting that expectant mother because of lack of shared information, this communication collaboration gap can be bridged with the development of maternal health care collaboration system.
This project scope was undertaken in Kalangala District. The district is coterminous with the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria and does not have territory on mainland Uganda which makes it a rural area. The objectives of the project were fulfilled using several tools and techniques.
Questionnaires and observations were used to collect data for objective one. The project was designed using data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams in objective two. The proposed system was developed using HTML, CSS, Java Script, Query and MYSQL to address objective three. In objective four, the developed system was tested using unite testing system and integration testing.
The system was validated by taking it to the intended users to confirm whether it meets their requirements. A validation questionnaire was provided to the users and results were analyzed using excel spreadsheets.
From the results of validation, it was realized that the users of the maternal health care collaboration system confirmed that it; authenticates users (10 %); is easy to learn and use (05%); interfaces have data input validation checks (10%); can enable users to interact (35%) and easily share information (35%).
Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that the developed maternal health care collaboration system should be adopted and deployed for effective communication and information sharing in health facilities of Kalangala District.