Kemri's new system likely to phase out clinic booklets

Paper booklets used to track neonatal vaccination might soon be phased out.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute has launched a cloud-based vaccination tracking system that's likely to replace the booklets.

The system will store the mother’s and baby’s information such as vaccination schedules and complete medical history.

The innovation by Kemri, in collaboration with Nippon Electric Company, uses fingerprint, voice and face recognition.

Research is being carried out to determine the feasibility of the system. 

The pilot is being conducted in Kwale at the Coast and Mbita in Kisumu before final countrywide scale-up.

The aim is to convert the mother-child booklet into an electronic version.

Principal investigator Dr Samson Muuo said the idea is to have children’s data and every person’s medical history.

This, he said, will help clinicians to understand better the history of diseases from patients’ perspectives.

“Since it is research-based, we don’t have a specific end date. The end date is based on how near to 100 per cent we are,” Muuo told the Star on Thursday.

The investigator said the study has been going on for two years.

“We have begun another phase to make it better with the hope that in the next one or so years we should be through,” he said.

Participating health facilities will be issued with notebook PCs connected to USB finger vein biometric scanners.

The PC will access a web-based software abbreviated as WIRE where women and infants will be enrolled, and mother-child health clinic visit data inputted.

The researcher will capture the normal flow of activity at the MCH clinics and recruit attending mothers and children who consent to be enrolled into the system.

Muuo said hospitals will register mothers and infants as they receive services during clinics.

He said nurses will enter the treatment and vaccinations received and update the information on subsequent visits.

“At the end of the study, we will interview nurses and mothers who used the system and collect their experiences and views about the usefulness of the system," Muuo said.

He said the data will help researchers understand if the system would be an acceptable alternative to the paper-based forms in healthcare settings.

The feedback received will also help researchers to develop a system suitable for local settings where mother and child health services are usually administered.

With further testing, improvements and widespread use, the system will ultimately be able to accurately retrieve important summary statistics such as vaccination coverage that are useful for planning health services.

This study has the potential to expand to the national level if successful and might eventually be considered for hospital or civil registration in Kenya.

Cloud-based data will enable patients to access their medical records anywhere in the world for treatment continuity as opposed to the paper-based system.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)