Cambia Health Systems and Medical Teams International selected The Production Foundry to document a health IT initiative in southwestern Uganda. We traveled to Nakivale Refugee Settlement, where Cambia IT specialists gathered information from staff and volunteers on the ground. Ugandan providers today rely on a cumbersome, paper-based system, which slows down reporting of potential outbreaks and allows them to spread unchecked.
This app should change all that. The health provider enters the patient’s information and can check boxes for the diagnosis. The result was a revolutionary new system, an IT solution for monitoring and tracking disease and illness that is significantly more efficient than the previous system.
Team members will return in the first quarter of next year to pilot the app and give physicians tablet computers.The project revolves around clinics that serve refugees and are managed by MTI and the United Nations.
As Medical Teams International serves more than 500,000 refugees in the Nakivale refugee settlement alone, plus another settlement in Uganda and other refugees in the 16 other countries Medical Teams serves, that is where the potential lies for increased use of this app. The hope is to share the app with other humanitarian aid organizations.
The Production Foundry documented the entire process, following the Cambia team from their headquarters in Portland, to Uganda, and back. The final product was a series of videos, photos, blog posts, and other updates regarding this project.
