hiv projects ruby on rails touchscreen touchscreen toolkit video This video shows how our system guides health care workers through HIV treatment protocols. After logging in, we scan a patient’s barcode, see their ‘patient dashboard’, then answer some questions and dispense the drugs.
The system uses Ruby on Rails, mysql and the touchscreen toolkit to deliver all of the functionality via a web browser running in full screen mode on a touchscreen computer.
October 3rd, 2007
CD4 Instrument Interface challenges hardware hiv projects software We are proud to announce that we have recently deployed our new CD4 instrument interface at Kamuzu Central Hospital. Here is a picture of the deployed system (click for a larger version):
One of the critical tests required to effectively treat HIV patients is the CD4 count. As the number of patients being treated in Malawi increases, so will the number of CD4 counts that need to be taken. A recent study showed that a typical CD4 result gets manually transcribed 7 times before reaching the decision maker. Obviously this is an error prone process. An error in the patient’s CD4 count not only wastes precious resources (the hospital is currently very low on expensive reagent) but it can also lead to the wrong decision being made for a patient.
Our solution was to develop a system that eliminated transcription of any kind throughout the entire process. The steps are as follows:
- Barcode scan the patients health passport and take take the blood sample
- Label the sample with an automatically printed accession number and send it to the lab
- At the lab the FACScount machine prompts the technician for an accession number, which they scan from the test tube with a bar code scanner .
- After the test has completed a file is transferred over the serial port via the Kermit protocol to a touchscreen clinical workstation which is mounted just above the FACScount.
- The workstation verifies that the accession number is valid, displays the results for the clinician on the screen and asks them to verify the results by pressing the save button, which copies the results directly into the patient’s electronic record in the mysql database.
- The next time the patient is seen by a clinician the “CD4 trail” is displayed on the touchscreen clinical workstation.
The system has just been launched, but already the lab technicians are happy because they no longer have to read the result from a screen, write it down, then type it into an excel document. We are hoping to see a dramatic improvement in data accuracy and usefulness as well.
Of course, the FACScount is one of many lab machines used in hospital throughout Malawi. We are hoping to generalize the approaches and learnings from this exercise and also work with other health care providers to create free and open source hardware and software solutions for lab equipment throughout the world. Contact us if you want to get involved.
September 1st, 2006
developing countries history projects History
Baobab Health Partnership was founded by Gerry Douglas and Dr. Thuy Bui in late 2000 as a direct result of their work with the health care system in Malawi between 1995 and 1997. Baobab’s first project was the development of a touchscreen-based patient management information system in the paediatric department of Lilongwe’s main hospital. The goal was to provide “proof of concept� for the use of appropriately engineered information technology by clinicians to improve the completeness and accuracy of data routinely collected for national level planning.
The concept was proved, and subsequent projects included modules for other hospital departments as well as highly specialized systems for VCT and HIV treatment. Over the course of the past six years, the hardware and software has been continually improved and a host of other technologies have been added to the Baobab toolkit.
Most recently the Baobab real time patient management system has been demonstrated at various international conferences (like PEPFAR, ART-LINC). Interest levels have been high, particularly due to the ease at which data is captured, and there are now a number of requests for similar systems to be deployed in other developing countries.
August 29th, 2006
