Project Description
Child mortality and morbidity is a concern in many developing countries. In Nigeria, the under-five mortality rate in 2011 was 124 per 1000 births. While the number of child mortalities in Nigeria reduced in 2015 (109 per 1000) the rate is still high when compared with the global average and fell short of achieving Millennium Development Goals. To address this situation, there is a need to provide empirical evidence of the benefits of introducing ICT-enabled integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) guidelines and to understand the impact of these technologies on user i.e. Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) in Enugu, Nigeria. Furthermore, an investigation of the current healthcare value chains to understand the levels of stakeholder awareness about iCCM and to explore stakeholders’ knowledge, awareness, attitudes, practices, perceptions and willingness to adopt mHealth in the community is required. In December 2015, members of the HIRSC team were successful in obtaining €100,000 from the Irish Research Council (IRC) for their research idea of IMPACT (usIng Mobile Phones for Accessing, Classifying and Treating sick children). Work on the IMPACT project is due to commence in March 2016.