Description of Session
The Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) strategy was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce morbidity and mortality among under-five children across the globe. Among its core components is enhancing case management skills of frontline health workers (FHWs): IMCI prescribes a series of steps to FHWs to identify and manage major childhood diseases. IMCI implementation has traditionally relied on paper-based tools and training material, which creates the need for memorization and lengthy training sessions, along with heightening chances of error and prolonging screening time per child. As a result, IMCI implementation has faced persistent barriers, and impact has been limited. Using Android technology, we developed eIMCI, an electronic version of WHO’s 2014 IMCI guidelines. The application allows FHWs to easily navigate the otherwise complex IMCI protocol on their mobile phones, eliminating the need for memorization and extensive training. As data is entered into the application, the system automatically integrates incoming patient data with disease symptoms to classify the patient in accordance with IMCI algorithms, and enables the FHW to skip over questions that are irrelevant to the case at hand. Screening time per child is thus considerably reduced. Furthermore, the application incorporates a referral system whereby FHWs can connect more serious cases to a health facility for treatment and follow-up. In our session, we will demonstrate how eIMCI works, and invite the audience to explore the application on a mobile device. Screenshots from the eIMCI application will be displayed on our poster, along with quotes from FHWs who have used the application. We will discuss the various stages the project went through before being scaled up and deployed at Indus Hospital in Karachi, Paksitan, where more than 80,000 children have been screened through eIMCI till date.
