ArticlePlastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open2021
Medical Documentation in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Lessons Learned from Implementing Specialized Charting Software.
Article in Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
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- The target trial framework in global health research: barriers and opportunities.Journal of global health · 2025Review
- Dementia prevalence and risk factors in people with and without HIV in Malawi: A medical record review.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Mapping the global burden of early-onset Parkinson's disease: socioeconomic and regional inequalities from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Assessing the factors militating against the effective implementation of electronic health records (EHR) in Nigeria.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- One Step Ahead in Realizing Pharmacogenetics in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: What Should We Do?Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Review
- Insights into craniosynostosis management in low- and middle-income countries: A narrative review of outcomes, shortcomings and paediatric neurosurgery capacity.SAGE open medicine · 2024Review
- Field based research in the era of the pandemic in resource limited settings: challenges and lessons for the future.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- The Roles of Electronic Health Records for Clinical Trials in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Scoping Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2023Article
- Exploring the barriers and facilitators to implementing electronic health records in a middle-income country: a qualitative study from South Africa.Frontiers in digital health · 2023Article
- The impact of limited access to electronic medical records on neurosurgical care within the CARICOM countries: A survey and scoping review.Brain & spine · 2023Article
- Current gaps in management and timely referral of cardiorenal complications among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Middle East and African countries: Expert recommendations.Journal of diabetes · 2022Review
- Non-Surgical Treatments for Keratinocyte Carcinomas.Advances in therapy · 2021Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe implementation of electronic health record (EHR) software at healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited by financial and technological constraints. Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity, developed a cleft treatment EHR system, Smile Train Express (STX), and distributed it to their partnered institutions. The purpose of this study was to investigate trends in medical documentation practices amongst Smile Train-partner institutions to characterize the impact that specialized EHR software has on medical documentation practices at healthcare facilities in LMICs.
methodsSurveys were administered electronically to 843 Smile Train-partnered institutions across 68 LMICs. The survey inquired about institutions' internet connection, documentation methods used during patient encounters, rationale for using said methods, and documentation methods for cloud-based storage of healthcare data. Institutions were grouped by economic and geographic subgroups for analysis.
resultsA total of 162 institutions (19.2%) responded to the survey. Most institutions employed paper charting (64.2%) or institutional EHR software (25.9%) for data entry during a patient encounter with the latter's use varying significantly across geographical subgroups (
conclusionsThe provision of STX to partnered institutions influenced medical documentation practices at several institutions; however, regulations and guidelines have likely limited its complete integration into clinical workflows. Further studies are needed to characterize trends in medical documentation in LMICs at a more granular level.
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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.