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Use of Mobile Application to Support Community Health Workers in Patients’ Assessment and Referrals. The Case of Malawi Rural Healthcare

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After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change (IFIPJWC 2023)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 696))

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Abstract

The dispersion of mobile technology in developing countries especially in rural areas has led to the belief that adopting mobile health applications is beneficial in supporting delivery of healthcare in developing countries. In this study, we explored the affordances of mobile-based Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) as a protocol that aims at providing basic lifesaving treatment to children who are under five years of age at community level. Using the qualitative approach, this research provides the health informatics and information systems community with an understanding of how the digital iCCM may affect the level of assessment of patients’ illness and referrals to higher level facilities. Data was collected through semi structured interviews, focus groups, observation and documents analysis. Thirty-two (32) participants were interviewed. Affordance theory was employed as a lens for analyzing the findings and three functional affordances were identified as diagnosis, treatment, and remote data collection.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the Community Health workers, Clinicians, iCCM Project coordinators and District Project Coordinators that took part in our study for their helpful feedback during the village clinics and stimulating discussions before and after the iCHIS implementation workshops.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Florence Matewere & Jens Kaasbøll

Authors
  1. Florence Matewere
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  2. Jens Kaasbøll
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Correspondence to Florence Matewere .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Matthew R. Jones

  2. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Arunima S. Mukherjee

  3. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Devinder Thapa

  4. University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Yingqin Zheng

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Matewere, F., Kaasbøll, J. (2023). Use of Mobile Application to Support Community Health Workers in Patients’ Assessment and Referrals. The Case of Malawi Rural Healthcare. In: Jones, M.R., Mukherjee, A.S., Thapa, D., Zheng, Y. (eds) After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change. IFIPJWC 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 696. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50154-8_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50154-8_21

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-50153-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-50154-8

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