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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Immunisation-notification adoption model: strategies for implementing mobile electronic notification of mothers in Uganda
    (Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 2017) Abandu, J. and; Kivunike, F.N.
    Mobile e-health systems play a significant role in information delivery by enhancing efficiency, cost effectiveness and mobility. In Uganda, mobile e-health has been predominantly adopted to facilitate information sharing between Ministry of Health and district health offices despite the availability of mobile phones in the community. This study sought to develop an immunisation-notification adoption model to support the use of mobile technology for creating citizen awareness. It focused on the adoption of mobile technology for notifying and reminding mothers of immunisation schedules. The objective was achieved by extending technology acceptance model to predict user satisfaction with the new system. Descriptive survey design was employed using questionnaire for data collection. The study implemented in Northern Uganda targeted 51 health workers and mothers in Gulu referral and Gulu independent hospitals. The model has the dimensions of knowledge, accessibility, support, content, trust, funding, awareness, knowledge sharing, skills and ease of use. Perceived usefulness was considered the key driver for the system adoption.
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    Factors affecting mobile immunisation notification system adoption in Uganda
    (Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 2018) Abandu, J. and; Kivunike, F.N.
    The aim of this study was to assess factors that affect the adoption of mobile immunisation notification system in Uganda. Methods: Descriptive survey design and structured questionnaires were employed for the study that was carried out in Northern part of Uganda. A total of 51 health workers and mothers were purposively sampled from Gulu Referral and Independent hospitals. Statistical package for social sciences was used to evaluate the impact of the identified factors on the adoption of the proposed system. Results: The findings showed that e-health knowledge; trust; ICT skills; accessibility; support; awareness; knowledge sharing and compatibility affect the adoption of the proposed system. Conclusions: The study provides informative directions to adopt the proposed system. Government needs to improve ICT infrastructure and support user training on e-health to promote the adoption of the system.
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    Evaluating the role of perceived usefulness in user adoption of mobile immunisation notification system in Uganda
    (Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 2017) Abandu, J. and; Kivunike, F.N.
    The study sought to evaluate the role of perceived usefulness in user adoption of mobile immunisation-notification system in Uganda. Descriptive survey design was employed and structured questionnaires were administered to 51 healthcare professionals and mothers from Gulu referral and Gulu independent hospitals in Northern Uganda using purposive sampling technique. Regression analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of the identified antecedents on the intention to adopt IMUNOT through perceived usefulness based on technology acceptance model. The findings showed e-health knowledge, accessibility, support, content and trust as the antecedents of perceived usefulness with 87.8% of variance. The findings suggest the importance of perceived usefulness in the mobile Immunisation-notification system adoption. The study provides behavioural and infrastructural strategies for stakeholders on how to foster perceived usefulness in the system adoption. However, more variables may be evaluated to improve the analytical capability of the model.
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    Information and Communication Technology usage in post-conflict maternal healthcare: Northern Uganda Referral hospital perspective
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2019-05-17) Abandu, J.; Kivunike, F.N.; Okot, P. and; Lamunu, J.
    The main objective of this study was to assess Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage in post-conflict maternal healthcare. This adds to the knowledge base as well as boosts the need to prioritize, empower and create awareness among ICT benefactors. Methods: A descriptive survey design was applied to quantify and explain the findings that were obtained from Gulu Referral hospital. A set of structured questionnaires were distributed to the participants during the phase of data collection. Regression analysis was performed to assess the relational impact of the identified factors on the use of ICT with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results: Although regression has shown usefulness, ease of use, trust and awareness as the key factors that promote ICT usage in the services of maternal healthcare, a number of deterrents were identified. The deterrents include: limitation of strong ICT infrastructure, skills and knowledge. Conclusion: We recommend management and Government improve ICT infrastructure and offer user training to impart knowledge and skills that are needed for handling sensitive or private health data. Adequate funding is also needed to strengthen ICT infrastructure. Due to the complex or dynamic nature of the society and advance in ICT more promoting and deterring factors should be explored in future.
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    Assessing Users Involvement in Analysis and Design Tasks of Electronic Health Information Systems: Experiences, Challenges, and Suggestions to Optimise Involvement
    (HELINA and JHIA, 2019) K. Akello, Christine; F. Bbosa, Francis; Nabukenya, Josephine
    User requirements play a vital role in the development of usable EHIS. For developers to design better quality, relevant and safer EHIS that meet user needs, they are required to actively engage stakeholders especially in the analysis and design tasks of its development life cycle. This is because they provide context appropriate solutions based on their needs. However, in most cases developers ignore health stakeholders’ input especially during these tasks due to varying perspectives and expectations, complexity, high cost, and variability in time to complete the tasks. This has resulted into various challenges including difficulty in capturing and interpreting user requirements in an effective and efficient manner, poorly designed and unusable systems, unsatisfied user needs, and high maintenance costs. This study thus aimed at assessing users’ involvement in the analysis and design tasks when developing EHIS with a view to understand their experiences, challenges, and suggestions to optimise their involvement. Methods: We employed a cross-sectional survey to investigate and describe the level of user involvement and challenges faced in the analysis and design tasks of the EHIS development process. A total of 36 health practitioners from 13 Key health institutions located in Uganda were selected as respondents. Results: The study revealed that majority of the respondents was involved in EHIS development, with a few involved at analysis and design tasks. Increased costs associated with data collection, followed by lack of consensus in clarifying, articulating and defining user requirements were recorded as the biggest challenges faced by users at requirements gathering, analysis and system design tasks. Regards suggestions to optimising users’ involvement in EHIS development tasks, the study reported that users were very much interested in being involved at all tasks of EHIS development, and consultation of users was paramount in order to incorporate all their needs in EHIS. Conclusions: The results from the study demonstrate the value of user involvement at the analysis and design tasks of EHIS development cycle. User involvement offers benefits in form of reduction in costs, improved productivity due to users easily arriving at a common consensus and positive growth in user attitudes. The researchers intend to incorporate suggestions that emerged from this study to conduct long-term evaluations of existing EHIS and investigate how users’ involvement changes over time.