Health IT

Roch, the attached two videos are captioned in English and I had just sent them to a colleague when your email came through. Not in French but can demonstrate what is possible.
I hope they help. Terry Hannan
MDRTB Pakistan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N8236ReWnM
IRDResearch Data visualization using Google Earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3lqG3hSYM

Hi Roch,
Sounds like a good initiative, though be careful that the idea of a
repository of mHealth initiatives has been tried multiple times before and
one lesson learned is that the information is so difficult to get and there
are so many current and new projects that usually as soon as a repository
is done, it's already out of date.

Additionally, i think if you're interest is looking at possible projects
that could be implemented in Senegal, I think you might want to look at
projects in similar countries, but I don't think the language is a large
barrier to implementing projects. What I mean to say is that if you're
objective is a list of projects that could be implemented in Senegal, then
even if they were implemented in an english speaking country, usually
translating the system and the project to french is not such a difficult
task.

There are several resources that exist (though they aren't limited to
french speaking countries).

1. mobile active has an mDirectory of mobile projects (
http://mobileactive.org/directory)
2. the Health Unbound project also has another repository
http://www.healthunbound.org/database
3. We published a ...

Hi Roch,
Sounds like a good initiative, though be careful that the idea of a
repository of mHealth initiatives has been tried multiple times before and
one lesson learned is that the information is so difficult to get and there
are so many current and new projects that usually as soon as a repository
is done, it's already out of date.

Additionally, i think if you're interest is looking at possible projects
that could be implemented in Senegal, I think you might want to look at
projects in similar countries, but I don't think the language is a large
barrier to implementing projects. What I mean to say is that if you're
objective is a list of projects that could be implemented in Senegal, then
even if they were implemented in an english speaking country, usually
translating the system and the project to french is not such a difficult
task.

There are several resources that exist (though they aren't limited to
french speaking countries).

1. mobile active has an mDirectory of mobile projects (
http://mobileactive.org/directory)
2. the Health Unbound project also has another repository
http://www.healthunbound.org/database
3. We published a systematic review of eHealth (including mHealth) whose
citation is Blaya JA, Fraser HSF, Holt B. “E-health technologies show
promise in developing countries.” Health Aff (Millwood). 2010; 29(2):243-50.
4. There is a group called OpenROSA, which has many different groups
working on mHealth in Africa, which you could contact about the projects
they've implemented.

I think perhaps working with either mobile active or health unbound (HUB)
to add the projects you find to their repository might be a win-win
situation.

Hope this helps,

Joaquin

___________________________________________________________________
Gerente de Desarrollo, eHealth Systems <http://www.ehs.cl/>
Research Fellow, Escuela de Medicina de Harvard <http://hms.harvard.edu/>
Moderador, GHDOnline.org <http://www.ghdonline.org/>

Hi Roch

My company is working in Cameroon and DRC supporting medical supply chain initiatives using our mhealth platform known as mango. I'd be happy to share the details with you and you can contact me directly using

I also agree with Joaquin i.e. do not think of the language as a barrier: we currently operate in six African countries, two French speaking and four English speaking and use the same platform in all of them to support a variety of programs.

Best wishes, Andrew Wyborn

I too operate a helthcare delivery system in
cameroon.....www.mydoctorcameroon.com...do so in the anglophone and francophe
areas. Check my site for details.

Charles Agbor, Founder/CEO
MyDoctorCameroon
MyDoctorInternational, Inc.
3122 Alder Lane
Saint Cloud, MN 56301
Ph.: 320-237-1074

MyDoctorCameroon.com

"A MyDoctorInternational Company"

May be some synergy is required amongst us


Charles Agbor, Founder/CEO
MyDoctorCameroon
MyDoctorInternational, Inc.
3122 Alder Lane
Saint Cloud, MN 56301
Ph.: 320-237-1074

MyDoctorCameroon.com

"A MyDoctorInternational Company"

Thank all you very much for your pertinent insights.
These pertinent pieces of information, resources and contacts are very valuable to us and will certainly be helpful when mapping out mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries in Africa.
I indeed agree with your assessment. French might not represent a barrier to implementing such initiatives, yet it might represent an impediment to accessing the information about initiatives being conducted within French-speaking countries.
The main goal of this research is not so much to demonstrate that French is a barrier to implementing mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries but it is more geared toward mapping out what is actually happening in these countries and making it accessible to a French –speaking audience as well. While there are mHealth initiatives being conducted in French-speaking countries, there seems to be not enough emphasis on the amount of information about mHealth initiatives conducted in French-speaking countries. As a result, French-speaking countries often don’t have the same access to these types of information like this one (GHDonline) for example in French language. Also, as we probably all agree most publications are done in English, so stakeholders in French-speaking countries might be slowed down when trying to get ...

Thank all you very much for your pertinent insights.
These pertinent pieces of information, resources and contacts are very valuable to us and will certainly be helpful when mapping out mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries in Africa.
I indeed agree with your assessment. French might not represent a barrier to implementing such initiatives, yet it might represent an impediment to accessing the information about initiatives being conducted within French-speaking countries.
The main goal of this research is not so much to demonstrate that French is a barrier to implementing mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries but it is more geared toward mapping out what is actually happening in these countries and making it accessible to a French –speaking audience as well. While there are mHealth initiatives being conducted in French-speaking countries, there seems to be not enough emphasis on the amount of information about mHealth initiatives conducted in French-speaking countries. As a result, French-speaking countries often don’t have the same access to these types of information like this one (GHDonline) for example in French language. Also, as we probably all agree most publications are done in English, so stakeholders in French-speaking countries might be slowed down when trying to get their information to launch new initiatives. I also agree that we could also translate in French what is already done in English, but a first step perhaps is to map out to the best of our ability what is done within these countries and then translate what is done in English so everybody could benefit of the information.
Again thank you very much for your help

Kind regards

Roch

Dear Roch and all,
I agree with you that language can not be a barrier - but it is up to us to work on that because in reality, when we deliver a course, the language can not be the barrier or even a concern that students need to spend time on. In Brazil we have a national program for distance education covering the whole country as a government program (Ministry of Education) and we tried to share this with our neighbor countries in South America. It happens that in South America, Brazil is the only country that Portuguese is the first language so that to share we need to able to translate (in Spanish, in this case) and more than that, we need to provide cultural adoption. We care for the content of health informatics, right?? So that language can not represent a challenge for the students - they can not put energy on figuring out about what we are trying to share or about the information we want to share.
As it was said here already, we need to focus on the methodology, content, schedule and the continuous support for the student. The methodology has to be renovated, redesigned - we ...

Dear Roch and all,
I agree with you that language can not be a barrier - but it is up to us to work on that because in reality, when we deliver a course, the language can not be the barrier or even a concern that students need to spend time on. In Brazil we have a national program for distance education covering the whole country as a government program (Ministry of Education) and we tried to share this with our neighbor countries in South America. It happens that in South America, Brazil is the only country that Portuguese is the first language so that to share we need to able to translate (in Spanish, in this case) and more than that, we need to provide cultural adoption. We care for the content of health informatics, right?? So that language can not represent a challenge for the students - they can not put energy on figuring out about what we are trying to share or about the information we want to share.
As it was said here already, we need to focus on the methodology, content, schedule and the continuous support for the student. The methodology has to be renovated, redesigned - we can not apply the same traditional learning methods.
Patti states: "3.) Simply digitizing learning material will not result in better learning outcomes."
She is completely right - we learnt that from the practice. Back to 2009 we had a program in health informatics with 500 students in the country from Amazon to São Paulo - that means different economic level of development and even different culture (even though we are still inside Brazil). At the conclusion more than 60% of the students not get to the end of the course. They were physicians, nurses, hospital directors, State Secretaries for Health Centers, CEOs,... It was hard to handle with students from different backgrounds looking for different goals. The content was prepared as exclusive for the program but several faculty also used their own material digitalized - did not worked at all. At the new version (in 2010-2011) we had to analyze the results and prepare a program dedicated to a specific group of students clarifying the goals and objectives of the course - one year program that gives them a certificate as Specialist in Health Informatics. We reduce that second version to 250 students and we had better results.
Now we are extending to 350 students and for the first time we are including students from Mozambique/ Africa (Portuguese speaking). We know that language will not be the big problem (we can have a good communication way and realize when the words we use have different meaning) but we are paying a lot of attention on cultural aspects.
One thing for sure: education is a never ending process for everyone


Cheers,
Heimar



-----Original Message----
From: GHDonline (Roch Nianogo) [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:11 PMazi
To: Heimar Marin
Subject: Re: [Health IT] Evaluating mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries in Africa


Roch Nianogo replied to the discussion "Evaluating mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries in Africa" in the Health IT community.

Reply contents:
"Thank all you very much for your pertinent insights.
These pertinent pieces of information, resources and contacts are very valuable to us and will certainly be helpful when mapping out mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries in Africa.
I indeed agree with your assessment. French might not represent a barrier to implementing such initiatives, yet it might represent an impediment to accessing the information about initiatives being conducted within French-speaking countries.
The main goal of this research is not so much to demonstrate that French is a barrier to implementing mHealth initiatives in French-speaking countries but it is more geared toward mapping out what is actually happening in these countries and making it accessible to a French –speaking audience as well. While there are mHealth initiatives being conducted in French-speaking countries, there seems to be not enough emphasis on the amount of information about mHealth initiatives conducted in French-speaking countries. As a result, French-speaking countries often don’t have the same access to these types of information like this one (GHDonline) for example in French language. Also, as we probably all agree most publications are done in English, so stakeholders in French-speaking countries might be slowed down when trying to get their information to launch new initiatives. I also agree that we could also translate in French what is already done in English, but a first step perhaps is to map out to the best of our ability what is done within these countries and then translate what is done in English so everybody could benefit of the information.
Again thank you very much for your help

Kind regards

Roch"

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Dear all,
I am a student of MSc in Addis Ababa University, Iam going to do a research on molecular epidemiology of M. tuberculosis, and the study area is 777km away from the laboratory, I would like to get sample from the study area of sputum and run PCR, how can I get it from the area and process it??

Dear Opiew Owar,
I am also in Ethiopia. I am leading Mycobacteriology lab at Jimma University. What is your protocol? Are you going to extract the DNA directly from sputum or you first culture and do the DNA extraction later? Can you tell me the area so that I could lend you my advise.

Hi everyone,

A new discussion has been started in the MDR-TB community to address the recent question here about sputum sample transport. If you'd like to continue that discussion and share your thoughts, please visit: http://www.ghdonline.org/drtb/discussion/fwd-re-ghdonline-4-new-items-in-heal...

Many thanks,
Marie

Hi Roch, thanks for taking on such a great initiative. Although there have been a lot of mapping projects (some very successful and unsuccessful ones), the projects were mainly concentrated in the English speaking part of the continent. My organization, PSI has mhealth activities in DRC, Cameroon, Benin and Mali, and it was hard finding a comprehensive repository of what's out there in order to move away from the pilotitis. I can share more with you about the projects if you'd like, my contact info is . I look forward also having access to the results of your work, it would be very valuable to the mhealth community at large. A great way to disseminate the results as mentioned earlier by others would be the HealthUnbound site of the mhealth Alliance.