Qualcomm Inc., through their Wireless Reach initiative has teamed up to develop and deploy a wireless EMR system to use in Nigeria by working with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) within the Federal Ministry of Health. Others involved include the Vecna Cares Charitable Trust, the nonprofit arm of Vecna Technologies, InStrat Global Health Solutions, a turnkey healthcare solutions provider, and Etisalat, a Nigerian telecommunications operator. The plan is to bring a mobile patient registry to midwives throughout rural Nigeria.
The goal for the project referred to as “CliniPAK360” is to reduce the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and has infant mortality rates that are among the highest in the world. The U.S. CIA has estimated that Nigeria has experienced about 630 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010 and about 73 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013. In comparison, the maternal death rate in developed countri9es is about nine per 100,000.
Currently, NPHCDA midwives record patient data in paper notebooks and Regional Health Officers travel to the clinics to review the reports for accuracy. To lighten this burden and increase accuracies and efficiencies, the Wireless Reach-funded project features a cloud-based EMR system based on Vecna Cares CliniPAK software and 3 G-enabled tablets is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.
As part of the project, each midwife uses a tablet to record patient data at the point-of-care. The data is then transmitted wirelessly via Etisalat’s 3G mobile network to the CliniPak central server, where the data is aggregated and synchronized with CliniPAK units.
The system supports midwives by alerting them to risk factors and sending red flags based in information available at the point-of-care to more closely track at risk patients. Policy leaders at NPHCDA also have access to the data and are using the pilot project to establish their EMR system.
The project’s pilot phase is underway in seven NPHCDA clinics in the Federal Capital Territory. InStrat Global Health Solutions is serving as the local program manager with responsibility for technology implementation, training and support and is closely monitoring the project while implementing the project in two additional states.
For more information, go to www.qualcomm.com/wirelessreach.