DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/gjmas.v12i1.

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GLOBAL JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES VOL. 12, 2013: 13-23 13

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MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM: A MOBILE APP. TO AID

HEALTH WORKERS RELATE HEALTH INFORMATION.
PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

ABSTRACT

Healthcare is conventionally regarded as an important determinant in promoting the general health and
wellbeing of peoples around the world. And in doing this, health education and information plays a major role, because
it is a reliable medium and the most effective way to reduce morbidity and mortality in developing countries. We need
to deliver vital messages and information to people at the lower quarter of the society, this information can be used for
changing behaviors’ and practices, and this in turn can save and protect lives. It is in this context that the use of
mobile phones in delivering vital health information and effective fieldwork reporting is of significance. This project
seeks to use the availability of mobile service across the urban and rural areas to benefit healthcare.

KEY WORDS: Health Information System; Mobile Health Information System, Medical Information

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Services such as, the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases, illness, injury, and other physical and
mental impairments in humans is known as healthcare. Researchers observed that most people in urban areas lack
better understanding or knowledge of the word “health” let alone those living in the rural areas. Reports from the field
do not get to the right quarters for proper decision making and intervention properly addressed.
The act of rendering these services to the right people most times are difficult or impossible. Health information
dissemination is done by fliers, billboards, adverts and news (both radio and TV) most people do not get these fliers
nor read the billboards. This is because; the fliers printed usually are not enough. Power failure is another big threat
because at the time the health information is being announced there will be power outage thus; the information does
not get to the desired audience.
It is predicted that mobile technology will have a big impact in healthcare, especially in developing countries.
Mobile technology could play a large role in detecting, mapping and responding to epidemics. The motivation behind
the development of the mobile technology field arises from two factors. On the one hand, there are high population
growths, a high burden of disease prevalence, low health care workforce, large numbers of rural inhabitants, and
limited financial resources to support healthcare infrastructure and health information systems. On the other hand is
the recent rapid rise in mobile phone penetration in developing countries to large segments of the healthcare
workforce, as well as the population.
Worldwide, cellular technologies have demonstrated the incredible power of communication as an agent for
social change. Mobile phones promise to benefit people in remote areas by making it easier and cheaper to diagnose
diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.5
Technology has taken healthcare a long way forward now people are more aware about their health status
and health needs. However, this development has not fully benefited the lower crest of the society. The reality is that
we live in a world where there is a silent emergency every day. It is in this scenario that the opportunity to use mobile
phones in healthcare industry for effective reporting and dissemination of health information is of significance.
Health care is conventionally regarded as an important determinant in promoting the general health and wellbeing of
peoples around the world. An example of this is the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1980 - declared by the World
Health Organization (WHO) as the first disease in human history to be completely eliminated by deliberate health care
interventions.
Health care systems are organizations established to meet the health needs of target populations. Their exact
configuration varies from country to country. In some countries and jurisdictions, health care planning is distributed
among market participants, whereas in others planning is made more centrally among governments or other
coordinating bodies. In all cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a well-functioning health care
system requires a robust financing mechanism; a well-trained and adequately-paid workforce; reliable information on
which to base decisions and policies; and well maintained facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and
technologies. In a seminar report of an exploration by an expert committee, the institute of medical literature review
did not reveal any substantive evidence of the strengths of paper records. They organized their weakness under four
categories, 1 content, 2 formats 3. Retrieval 4. Linkages and integration.

Prince Ana, Department of Computer Science, Cross River University of Technology Calabar, Nigeria
Steven Chibuzor Humphery, Department of Computer Science, Cross River University of Technology
Calabar, Nigeria
14 PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

Over the years, the mobile phone subscription of developing countries has steadily increased compared to
that in the developed countries. Statistics from the International Telecommunication Union (2007) suggested that there
are now more mobile phone users in the developing world than in the developed world. In countries like Uganda, it is
estimated that, their mobile phone subscriptions have increased by 1700 percent between 2002 and 2008; the mobile
phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2002 was 1.51, and that of 2008 was 38.4 For Nigeria for the same period
it was 1.2 in 2002 and 5.1 in 2010(ITU, 2012). From the above it can be seen that the rate of mobile penetration in
Nigeria is very high which makes it a very good platform to use in disseminating of medical information. Reaching
large population in remote areas was unthinkable in olden days, with mobile communications revolution sweeping
across the globe, nearly 90 per cent of the world's population now has access to a mobile-phone signal, including 80
per cent of people in rural areas.
Mobile-cellular penetration in developed countries has reached saturation levels, recording penetration rates
of over 100 per cent and a growth of only one per cent during the past year; in developing countries by contrast,
growth in mobile subscriptions is still buoyant, at 20 per cent, with no sign of a slowdown

Fig 1: Global cellular subscription over years

MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 15

Fig 2: Mobile subscription comparison between developed and developing countries

In Malawi, Josh Nesbit of Medic Mobile developed software that allowed health workers to text in medical information
for rural patients. Rather than spend hours commuting to clinics, they could get quick diagnosis on routine symptoms
and suggested treatments. According to him, “within six months of the system going live, the number of patients being
treated for tuberculosis doubled, more than 1200 hours in travel time were eliminated, and emergency services
became available in the area for the first time

PROBLEM STATEMENTS

The significant part of any Health Information System involves the acquisition, management and timely
retrieval of great volumes of information and information dissemination. And because of the nature of the existing
system (paper based), the following setbacks are faced;
 Mismanagement of data.
 Primary health centers lack appropriate health information update.
 Inability to gather accurate health inventory control at a given time (E.g. how many children were immunized
in Abi LGA in August, 2011).
 Lack of proper information passage on disease outbreak.
 No proper accountability on the distribution of healthcare facilities (E.g. mosquitoes’ nets).

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this system is to achieve the best possible support of patient care, outcomes, and administration
by presenting data when needed and acquiring data when generated with networked electronic data processing.
The proposed system will increase staff productivity and efficiency by:
 Ensuring data integrity and provide a database for future statistical and management reporting
 Reducing the time spent by staff filling out forms, freeing resources for more critical tasks
 The proposed system will also help serve as a mediator between the headquarters and the other branches
through the use of phone. It also serves as an inventory control where statistics about a particular illness is
known.
Generally, Mobile Health Information System (MHIS) is built to help manage, control, and store health information, and
at the same time help the health workers on field work to pass accurate and timely report to the necessary quarters.
16 PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DESIGN

This design will serve as a base for future designs that will be a source of information and guide to future
designers that may embark on similar studies.
The result of this design will aid healthcare organizations enhance team work, collaboration and knowledge
sharing among the employees through an integrated communication system. It will significantly reduce paperwork
involved with submitting data, documents, reports etc.
Increase effectiveness and productivity through an open communication system which provides for rapid
information sharing, proposals and feedback. Ensure smooth workflow through enhanced information dissemination.

SCOPE OF THE DESIGN

This work is restricted to the building of a “Mobile Health Information System using Mobile Phones to relate
Health Information”. Therefore, this system is designed mainly for use by health care organizations. With this, the
extent to which this study goes is restricted to the use of technologies such as J2ME, MIDlets, PHP, and MySQL, that
is web-based data management technologies for building.

EXISTING SYSTEM MODEL

The existing system is a manual based system. Information dissemination is done with the use of posters,
fliers and mass media. Below is a picture of what it looks like.

HEALTH CENTRE MASS MEDIA

FLIERS
TV
RADIO
BILL BOARD

NEWS PAPER

Fig 3.2: Existing System Design

PROPOSED SYSTEM DESIGN

The Design of the new system involves specification of various components that will be used in building the
system, defining the attribute of the components and the relationship that exist between these components. The
design is broken into:

a. Logical design: - This involves the design of prototypes representing what the actual components of the system
will look like. The logical design describes what the user interface; command structure and data store will look like, it is
based on these designs that the system is implemented.
 MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 17

b. Physical designs: This aspect of designing has to do with the physical implementation of the logical design
through the use of a programming/scripting language. Hence the physical design is the actual construction of the
system.

HEAD QUARTER
SERVER

Data flow
Data flow

THE AUTOMATED
SYSTEM
RADIO BILLBOARDS

Data flow PRIMARY

TV
HEALTH
CENTRE
FLIERS
S

Fig. 3.3: Proposed System Model

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

This system is in two phases, the server application and the mobile application. The first application which is
the server application is built with Dreamweaver, PHP, MySQL and the second; the mobile phone application is built
with J2ME, MIDlets, and PHP. The purpose of building these two applications is to enable them interface and share
information with each other. And with the help of a gateway SMS is used to aid quick reporting.
This act involves both retrieval of data and dissemination of health information to the public through the mobile
phone. This is made possible because since the introduction of mobile phones, there has been a tremendous increase
in mobile phone diffusion in developing countries. Statistics from the International Telecommunication Union (2007)
suggested that there are now more mobile phone users in the developing world than in the developed world. In
countries like Uganda, it is estimated that, their mobile phone subscriptions have increased by 1700 percent between
2002 and 2008; the mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2002 was 1.51, and that of 2008 was 27.2 (ITU,
2008).
18 PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

HOME

ABOUT US HEALTH TIPS

MALERIA

TYPHOID

3.7 FUNCTIONAL FLOW DIAIMMUNIZATION

OUTBREAK

ADMIN LOGIN

ADD USER HEALTH UPDATE SENTS ITEMS NEW SMS

EDIT REPORTS INBOX

DELETE

MALARIA TYPHOID IMMUNIZATION

LOG OUT

Fig. 3.3: Functional Flow Diagram

MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 19
SUMMARY
Mobile technology is having a big impact in health care, especially in developing countries and soon will play a
large role in detecting, mapping and responding to epidemics in the developing world. Technology has taken
healthcare a long way forward, people are more aware of their health status and health needs but this development
has not fully benefited the lower crest of the society where silent emergency occure every day. It is in this scenario
that the possibility of using mobile phones in health care for dissemination and access of health information is of
significance.

CONCLUSION
Worldwide, mobile technologies have demonstrated the incredible power of communication as an agent for
social change. The use of mobile phones to disseminate information on health will promote health consciousness to
people in remote areas and also serve as an inventory control system for health commodities..

SCREEN SHOTS OF THE APPLICATIONS

HOME PAGE
20 PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

HEALTHTIPS

OUTPUT PAGE

MALARIA LINK
MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 21
ADMIN PAGE

SEND SMS PAGE

22 PRINCE ANA AND STEVEN CHIBUZOR HUMPHERY

SENT ITEMS

THE MOBILE APPLICATION

MOBILE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 23

SENT ITEMS FROM FIELD WORK (PHONE)

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