ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2014
Comparing a paper based monitoring and evaluation system to a mHealth system to support the national community health worker programme, South Africa: an evaluation.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health workers' perceptions and experiences of using mHealth technologies to deliver primary healthcare services: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- A mixed-method evaluation of the impact of introducing 52 digital X-ray systems in Ghanaian health facilities on tuberculosis case finding and quality of care.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Evaluating the acceptability, feasibility, and implementation fidelity of a multipurpose mobile health (mHealth) app used for Tuberculosis (TB) contact tracing by Ward-Based Outreach Teams (WBOTs) in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Enablers, Challenges, and Lessons Learned From a Digital Health Intervention (Sehatmandi App) in Afghanistan: Qualitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Barriers and benefits of mHealth for community health workers in integrated community case management of childhood diseases in Banda Parish, Kampala, Uganda: a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Use of mHealth in promoting maternal and child health in "BIMARU" states of India "A health system strengthening strategy": Systematic literature review.PLOS digital health · 2024Review
- Understanding reasons for and strategic responses to administrative health data misreporting in an Indian state.Health policy and planning · 2023Article
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- Implementation of mHealth applications in community-based health care: Insights from Ward-Based Outreach Teams in South Africa.PloS one · 2022Article
- Exploration of Community Health Workers' views about in their role and support in Primary Health Care in Northern Cape, South Africa.Journal of community health · 2020Article
- Development of an Electronic Data Collection System to Support a Large-Scale HIV Behavioral Intervention Trial: Protocol for an Electronic Data Collection System.JMIR research protocols · 2018Article
- Designing mHealth for maternity services in primary health facilities in a low-income setting - lessons from a partially successful implementation.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2018Article
- mHealth Application Areas and Technology Combinations*. A Comparison of Literature from High and Low/Middle Income Countries.Methods of information in medicine · 2017Article
- Understanding the barriers to successful adoption and use of a mobile health information system in a community health center in São Paulo, Brazil: a cohort study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2016Article
- Continuum of Care Services for Maternal and Child Health using mobile technology - a health system strengthening strategy in low and middle income countries.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2016Article
- Data for Program Management: An Accuracy Assessment of Data Collected in Household Registers by Community Health Workers in Southern Kayonza, Rwanda.Journal of community health · 2015Article
- What's Past is Prologue: A Scoping Review of Recent Public Health and Global Health Informatics Literature.Online journal of public health informatics · 2015Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn an attempt to address a complex disease burden, including improving progress towards MDGs 4 and 5, South Africa recently introduced a re-engineered Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy, which has led to the development of a national community health worker (CHW) programme. The present study explored the development of a cell phone-based and paper-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to support the work of the CHWs.
methodsOne sub-district in the North West province was identified for the evaluation. One outreach team comprising ten CHWs maintained both the paper forms and mHealth system to record household data on community-based services. A comparative analysis was done to calculate the correspondence between the paper and phone records. A focus group discussion was conducted with the CHWs. Clinical referrals, data accuracy and supervised visits were compared and analysed for the paper and phone systems.
resultsCompared to the mHealth system where data accuracy was assured, 40% of the CHWs showed a consistently high level (>90% correspondence) of data transfer accuracy on paper. Overall, there was an improvement over time, and by the fifth month, all CHWs achieved a correspondence of 90% or above between phone and paper data. The most common error that occurred was summing the total number of visits and/or activities across the five household activity indicators. Few supervised home visits were recorded in either system and there was no evidence of the team leader following up on the automatic notifications received on their cell phones.
conclusionsThe evaluation emphasizes the need for regular supervision for both systems and rigorous and ongoing assessments of data quality for the paper system. Formalization of a mHealth M&E system for PHC outreach teams delivering community based services could offer greater accuracy of M&E and enhance supervision systems for CHWs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.