Design of an E-Health Application for Management of Maternal and Child Health: A Case Study of Atua Government Hospital- Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Following the numerous reports by several international organizations, it has become very clear that most developing countries including Ghana will not be able to meet the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to maternal and child health. One of the major public health problems in Ghana is maternal, child and infant mortality outcome which is used to assess a country’s socioeconomic performance and the citizens’ quality of life. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in Ghana is still very high in spite of numerous efforts and interventions by both the government and its developing allies. Evidences from several reports relating to maternal and child health outcomes show that a substantial number of women die yearly due to pregnancy related complications which can be prevented or reduced. The enormous promise that e-health solution possesses in improving the health of our communities particularly for people residing in the rural areas cannot be over emphasized. In this thesis, an outline on how to design an eHealth application in the health settings is provided. In order to gain the understanding of the application environment and also determine the functional requirement of the system, both the qualitative and qualitative methods of research were adopted. The qualitative method of research centered on observation of participants, background inquiry and focus group discussions helped gain more understanding into the research environment. The activities carried out included an analysis of workflow, documentation procedures, and documentation tools at the project study site. The study used Prototyping or Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach of system development; the development and testing of working models of the new application was carried out in an interactive and iterative process until the final product achieved. This work accordingly, resulted in the development of an artifact that was customized to address healthcare workers information needs and also improve clinical decision making which has the potential to improve patient outcomes and augment healthcare systems setup. The quantitative method of research was used to assess the healthcare professionals’ perception on the dimensions of information system which included organization, management and technology perspectives. The major findings were that even though the health professionals indicated there was no problem with the work flow at maternal and child welfare clinic, the documentation tools were problematic. The health professionals testified that eHealth application would facilitate data access, reduce problems associated with the documentation as well as iii enhance clinical decision making and promoting knowledge of work at maternal and child welfare clinic. Besides, the study showed that health professionals have either limited or no knowledge in information and communication technology usage. Although eHealth solution deployment could be a difficult task, it is evolving as one of the important means by which quality healthcare can be achieved. A well-functioning eHealth system ensures that midwives, community health nurses and other members of healthcare professionals can be assigned to definite homes where pregnant women children with risk factors as well defaulters can be closely monitored. In addition, a maternal and child comprehensive registry can be developed which can eventually enhance case management to improve health outcomes.

Source: KNUST