Browsing by Author "Shidende, Nima H."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Challenges in participation and implications on human development: Experiences from health information systems implementations in Tanzania and Malawi
    (Academia.edu, 2014) Shidende, Nima H.; Chawani, Marlen S.; Kaasbøll, Jens.
    In this paper, we present our empirical insights from Tanzania and Malawi by showing the challenges of participation and we provide implications which can be used to enhance human development in the health sector. Our empirical material is drawn from the Health Information Systems Project which is a global south-north network aiming at improving the use and management of health data in developing countries. Our focus is on the interaction between software implementers, end users and global open source software developers. Our study indicates participatory challenges which are related to the difficulties in identifying users, limited health domain knowledge among some of the expected end-users and software implementers; and limited participation arising due to local-global differences. We argue that for human development to occur through the use of open source software, participation skills in the design, development and use of open source software need to be enhanced through capacity development of end-users and software implementers.
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    Coordination challenges in collaborative practices in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Tanzania
    (JHIA, 2014) Shidende, Nima H.; Grisot, Miria; Aanestad, Margunn
    This paper describes some of the complexities that face health service provision in developing countries, with the motivation to inform design of appropriate information systems. In particular, we are interested in a better understanding of the challenges to coordination and collaboration between health staff that are located in different facilities and employed to work in different health programs. The study reported and analyzed in this paper was conducted in two districts in Tanzania. Using ethnographic data collection methods, we studied health workers’ practices of coordination and Collaboration in Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services in Tanzania. In our study we describe the collaboration required when managing patient trajectories of PMTCT patients across facilities and programs, and how contingencies may change the course of a patient trajectory. We provide a rich empirical description of coordination work in a resource constrained setting and we propose improvements to the design of both computer and paper-based information systems. The rich empirical description of coordination work in a resource constrained setting and our analysis of coordination challenges contribute to a better understanding that can strengthen collaboration and thus also improve health care provision.
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    An ethnographically informed participatory design of primary healthcare information technology in a developing country setting
    (PubMed, 2017) Shidende, Nima H.; Igira, Faraja T.; Mörtberg, Christina M.
    Ethnography, with its emphasis on understanding activities where they occur, and its use of qualitative data gathering techniques rich in description, has a long tradition in Participatory Design (PD). Yet there are limited methodological insights in its application in developing countries. This paper proposes an ethnographically informed PD approach, which can be applied when designing Primary Healthcare Information Technology (PHIT). We use findings from a larger multidisciplinary project, Health Information Systems Project (HISP) to elaborate how ethnography can be used to facilitate participation of health practitioners in developing countries settings as well as indicating the importance of ethnographic approach to participatory Health Information Technology (HIT) designers. Furthermore, the paper discusses the pros and cons of using an ethnographic approach in designing HIT.
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    Health information systems training: University of Dar es Salaam implementation experience
    (Academia.edu, 2007) Shidende, Nima H.
    Every health worker collects data while delivering health services. This information will later inform the society about the population’s health status, for instance as diseases statistics. A shift towards decentralization in many low-income countries implies that more skills are demanded of primary health care workers, including data and information handling. There is a need to build capacity to deal with health information and one way of doing that is by introducing courses related to health information system. This paper reports the experience obtained and lesson learnt while implementing the nine month programme: Health Management Information System Course at the University of Dar es Salaam during the first two years. The course aims to understand the development of Health information system in order to strengthen health management in developing countries. The emphasis is placed on the teaching module that combined the theory, cross-country cooperation and research at the work place of participants. Through the students’ own research projects, it was learnt that there is a problem of data quality at district levels and this could be attributed to poor HMIS training to health workers dealing with data management at various levels of health sector. What we have learned from this course is that there is a need to develop different course modules for different participants. We conclude by recommending the establishment of similar courses in different places.