The Humanosphere site covers the most important issues in the global health, aid and development arena. They have a fantastic podcast and this week, they sat down with Yaw, Nafundi's CEO, to discuss what we call "the paper problem" in health care.
In hospitals across the developing world, critical information (e.g., name, symptoms, prescriptions) about patients is written down on sheets of paper. These paper records often have mistakes, are hard to search through, and sometimes just can't be found. The entire process is cumbersome and inefficient, and that can mean worse health outcomes for patients -- especially those with chronic diseases like HIV and TB.
This paper problem was the reason we started work on ODK. Today, ODK has been used in hospitals to replace inefficient paper forms and increase the quality of care. As the Humanosphere site says, "ODK is an amazing technology, but the story of how Anokwa has used it – carefully, keeping it open-source, and in partnerships with local organizations around the world – is just as important."
Listen to the interview for the story of how Nafundi came to be and for a sneak peek at what the next generation of ODK tools will look like.
In early 2018, polio virus was detected in the sewers of Mogadishu, Somalia and the government moved quickly to vaccinate the country's children in order to prevent a potential outbreak. A vaccination campaign targeting more than 726,000 children was launched in the Banadir and Lower and Middle Shabelle regions. The campaign was carried out by some 3,500 staffers and Nafundi assisted by enabling real-time tracking of vaccination coverage using ODK. Read more.
Fayaz Jatoi is the Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) for Polio Eradication in Sindh, Pakistan. In this guest post, Fayaz describes why AFP surveillance is critical to polio eradication and how an SMS-based reporting system for private care provider helps. Read more.
This position has been filled. Thanks to everyone who applied! Read more.