Development, implementation and preliminary study of a PDA-based tuberculosis result collection system.
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Date
2007-01-22
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Abstract
Partners In Health PIH and its sister organization in Lima Peru Socios En Salud SES treat a majority of multidrug resistant tuberculosis MDR TB patients in Peru in conjunction with the Peruvian National TB Program NTP Monthly bacteriology tests which must be collected from health establishments located across this major city are an integral part of this treatment Currently a SES employee visits each health establishment to collect this information by hand process it and type it into an electronic medical record system PIH EMR In this paper we describe the development and implementation of a personal digital assistant PDA based electronic system to collect verify and upload monthly bacteriology data into the PIH EMR After an initial implementation period we performed a pilot study to test the use of this system We completed a baseline assessment in two health districts and then implemented the electronic system in one of the districts while the control site continued to use the paper based system during the same period The PDA based system had a processing time of 6 2 days significantly lower than measurements for both the baseline 54 8 and control sites 64 4 both pUnder0 0001 It was also able to reduce the frequency of discrepancy from 10 1 to 2 8 pUnder0 0001 and receive positive feedback from the users Finally the system s cost would be recuperated in three months from time savings due to increased work efficiency This system will be the subject of a larger study to determine its impact on delays errors and costs
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Facility-based health worker, Delayed reporting of events, Access to information or data, Low adherence to treatments, Pilot, Feasibility, Usability, Tuberculosis, Treatment adherence, Data collection and reporting