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HANDHELD COMPUTERS USER NEEDS SURVEY IN MBALE AND RAKAI DISTRICTS, JULY 2004

DR KALAMYA NAMONYO JULIUS

Uganda health information network JULY, 2004

Introduction:

Due to the increasing demand of end users of hand held computers, for relevant and more content, it is imperative to exactly find out from the users what kind of information they want. To achieve this we conducted a simple and quick survey in the two pilot districts to get the required information that will tailor the kind of content sent to users.

Objective:

To identify relevant content that different cadres of end users of hand held computers would like to receive and how often so as to help the UHIN to offer quality and timely service to them.

Methods:

Site:  The survey took place in the two pilot Districts of Mbale and Rakai, and Marie Stops Mbale, from 26th -30th July 2004.

Respondents: The respondents were current users of hand held computers in the two Districts. A total of 78 respondents were interviewed, 40 from Mbale and 38 from Rakai with 3key informants (2 DDHS’ and one medical superintendent.

Sample size: Rakai: 38 PDA users were interviewed in the four HSDs of Rakai District. Mbale: 40 PDA users were interviewed in the two HSDs of Mbale District.

Data collection: Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, administered by the content manager with the assistance of the UHIN field staffs.

Analysis:  The analysis has been done in SPSS and presented in tables and text.

RESULTS

Table 1: showing the socio-demographic characteristics of hand held computer users (PDA) in the Districts of Mbale and Rakai –July 2004

The average age of respondents was 33years, with a range of 21years-58 years and a standard deviation of 9.9 years

Others1 includes DDHS Office, Marie Stopies

Orther2 includes Health Inspectors, Health Assistants

Training of PDA users

Table: showing source of training of PDA users

The project staff in the use of PDAs formally trained 84.6% of the respondents, while 15.4% have since been trained by their colleagues.

All the respondents had been trained in the last one-year with the majority having been trained within the last 3 months (65.4%).

Of the respondents, 53(67.9%) said they had some source of medical information and other news, while 25(32.1%) did not have any source of this information at all. The sources of information mentioned included journals, newsletters, libraries, radio, CME and friends.

Table: showing respondents aspirations on receiving content

Majority of 88.5% of respondents are using PDAs to send or receive information and 94.9% of the respondents would like to receive medical or other relevant information by using the PDAs.

Of the respondents 69.2% would like to receive full articles as opposed to summarize or journal articles.

When asked on how often they would want to receive the information, most 52.5% want to receive information once a week, while others want daily 29.5%, bi-weekly 10.3%, thrice a week 7.7%.

All the respondents 100% are willing to give feed back on the information received to help in improvements in the type of content sent.

Table: shows the respondents willingness to pay for the content

The average amount of money that PDA user are willing to pay is 7,442/= per month (about $5.75 US) as contribution to the service. The contribution that can be made ranged from 100-40,000/= per month. (up to about $30 US)

This willingness to pay was corroborated by what the two directors thought of the contributions as

“once the PDAs and Jacks are in place even the district can contribute towards the running of the project because it has been very useful to us” DDHS Rakai.

“To sustain this project is something that we can do through the use of our PHC funds since our leadership here is interested like the chairman health committee and the ACAO in charge of health” DDHS Mbale

Table: shows type of information that respondents would like to receive on PDAs

*Multiple responses allowed

The majority of respondents are interested in content in the following areas:

1. Communicable diseases (87.7%)
2. Maternal health (82.1%)
3. HIV/AIDS (80.8%)
4. ARV Drugs (80.8%)
5. PMTCT (79.5%)
6. Diarrhea diseases (76.9%)
7. Malaria (75.6%)
8. Public health (74.4%)
9. Other aspects as in the table

Key informants Discussion:

During my discussion with the District Directors of Health Services of both districts and the Medical superintendent of Kalisizo Hospital, the following issues were raised:

Achievements:

• In all the project has helped to improve the flow of data though still there are problems with completeness and timeliness
• In Mbale the project has picked out well and they think that it be expanded in the other HSDs especially Manjiya that there is now MTN coverage.
• Both districts pledge to sustain the project through integrating it in their normal HMIS once the infrastructure of PDAs and Jacks is in place.
• In the words of DDHS Mbale “this is a worthwhile, with good potential project, useful in data collection, analysis and feedback so lets address the gaps and expand”

Constraints/challenges:

• That in Mbale some health workers have been slow to learn and have failed to cope up.
• In all the districts the complaint of few jacks is mentioned and so they say its difficult for health workers to move long distances and ask for more jacks.
• Charging of PDAs has been a problem in areas where there is no power so this calls for solar chargers or long life batteries.
• The content has been monotonous therefore the content needed should cover all cadres and should be related to the daily practice in medical and non-medical field and in a language that can be easily understood by all cadres.
• The e-mail system promised is being anxiously being awaited.
• User support is still much needed in the records department in Mbale, as the DDHS is not confident that the system can run should the project staffs be pulled out now.

Conclusions:

• Majority of PDA users have been trained with up to date skills and have been using PDAs to send or receive information.
• All most all respondents wish to receive appropriate medical information and other news by using a PDA.
• Most of the users want to receive information as full articles on a weekly basis though an equally significant proportion of users want information on a daily, bi-weekly or thrice a week.
• Majority of users are willing to pay for the content at an affordable rate per month.
• All users are willing to give feed back on content that will be sent for purpose of improvement
• Among other topics, the following were the most preferred to be in the content: communicable diseases, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, PMTCT, Malaria, ARVs, Diarrhea diseases, Public Health issues and other listed topics above.

Recommendations:

• Iam beginning to source for appropriate content to be sent to the users as per the findings of this survey. And to strike a balance I will send content 2-3 times a week.
• From time to time we need to conduct a users needs survey as the taste for the information may change with time.

UGANDA HEALTH INFORMATION NETWORK

Tool for user needs survey 

No…                                                Name of interviewer……………………..

Name of district………………………HSD………………………….

Date of interview…………………

Directions: Please circle or write in the space provided for responses.

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1.Name of health facility…………………………………………………………

2.Level of health facility

     1=Hospital

     2=HCIV

     3=HCIII

     4=HCII

     5=Other

3.Age of respondent…………………………………

4.Sex of respondent    

           1=Male

           2=Female

5.Qualification/cadre of respondent  

1=Doctor                                                      

2=Clinical officer                     

            3=Comprehensive nurse        

4=Registered midwife 

5=Enrolled midwife          

6=Registered nurse

7=Enrolled nurse  

8=N/Assistant/Nursing Aides    

9=Laboratory technician

10=Records Officer/ Assistant

11=Others……………………                               

6.Who is your current employer?

           1= District

           2= NGO

           3= Private

           4= others………………………………………………………specify

 ACCESS TO INFORMATION

7.Have you had any in-service training about use of PDA?  

           1=Yes           

           2=No

8.If yes, specify how long ago?…………….months

           1= last 3 months

           2= last 6 months

           3= last 1 year

9.Do you have access to any sources of medical information/news?

           1=Yes

          2=No

         If no go to Q 14

10.what are the sources of medical information/news that you get? (Tick all that apply)

    1=Library

    2=CME

    3= Friends

    4=Journals (specify)…………………………………..

    5=Radio

    6=Others (specify)…………………………………….

11.How often do you receive this              information/news?………………………………………..

12.What are the topics you have been receiving medical information/news about? (LIST)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

13.Are you satisfied with the information/news you receive?

            1=yes

            2=No

14.What problems/gaps have you been encountering? (LIST)………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

15.Have you used a PDA/hand held computer to receive or send information/news?

            1= yes

            2= no

16.Would you like to receive information/news by use of hand held computer? 

            1=Yes

             2=No  

18. Which of the following medical information/news would you be interested in? (Tick all that apply)

     1= Communicable diseases

     2= Malaria

     3= Immunisable diseases

     4= Diarrhea diseases

     5= Family planning

     6= Maternal health issues in general

     7= Disease surveillance

     8= HIV/AIDS

     9= PMTCT

    10= Ant-retroviral drugs

    11= Laboratory services

    12= Blood transfusion

  13= General news from local & international dailies

  14= Entertainment

  15= Sports

  16= Non-communicable diseases

 17= Public/community health issues

18= Research abstracts on topical subjects in health

19=Other……………………………………………………...

19.How often would you want to receive this information/news?

            1=Daily

            2=Biweekly

            3=Thrice a week

            4=Weekly

20.Is there any other information that you would like to receive?   If yes, specify...

20.Would you be willing to participate in giving us feedback so as to improve on kind of content sent to you?

              1=Yes

              2= No

THANK-YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND PARTICIPATION.