eHealth Africa, THINKMD and Kano State Primary Health Care Management Board (KSPHCMB) collaborated to implement a digital platform called MEDSINC among Community Health Workers (CHWs) in 5 metropolitan Local Government Areas (LGAs). Covering 15 Health facilities, MEDSINC supports the management of illnesses under the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) and empowered CHWs with skills to carry out physician-like clinical assessments on sick children within 2 months – 5 yrs of age. The close out meeting which held July 19, 2018 was presided over by the Executive Secretary, KSPHCMB, Dr. Nasir Mahmoud and with the support of Juliet Odogwu, Megan McLaughlin and Dr. Aisha Giwa, he presented certificates of completion to the CHWs. The ceremony consolidated our collaborative efforts in empowering CHWs with training and on-the-job support to improve the quality of care provided at primary health care level in the state.
Participants with their certificate
The pilot study was completed in 2 months and involved a 6-weeks implementation period (June 4 – July 13) and 3 stages of data collection – Pre, Mid and Post-Implementation IMCI observational data collection. Over the implementation period, CHWs used the platform to assess children in the health facilities. A total of 2,239 children were assessed using MEDSINC and a 41% increase in the number of IMCI observational data points collected at baseline (pre-implementation) was observed after mid-implementation data collection. This indicated an increase in the quality of assessments provided by the CHWs using MEDSINC. The feedback from the CHWs throughout the implementation period was positive and contributed to the ongoing improvements on the MEDSINC platform.