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With a growing demand for health services, organizations are now focusing on providing mobility, information technology and tech-enabled health products to improve healthcare delivery.
From customized software development to tech consultation and assessment, IHS provides holistic/end-to-end software solutions as a key to unlock optimized, successful health systems for clients and partners.
An estimated 4.2% suffer from depression, and 3.5% suffer from anxiety¹ out of the total population of Pakistan.
With the availability of 1 psychiatrist per 500,000 of the population², many practitioners are unable to reach patients for screening and care of their mental health illnesses.
IHS has aided Interactive Research and Development’s mental health program to scale, track and provide counselling services to potential mental health patients across Pakistan.
We developed an EMR and an android app to support mental health screening, through which over 100,000 people have been screened for symptoms of depression and anxiety, allowing for greater awareness and access to treatment.
References:
[1] World Health Organization, Depression and Other common mental disorders: global health estimates. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2017 Feb:1-24.
[2] World Health Organization, WHO Aims Report on Mental Health Systems in Pakistan.
Geneva: World Health Organization. 2009
Treatment for TB is inaccessible in low- and middle-income countries, and often, patients are unaware of their diagnosis because of barriers to accessing quality and affordable testing options.
Working with Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), IHS configured DHIS2 platform by linking diagnostic labs with treatment partners to track patient registration. This helped to ensure patients were put on treatment.
IHS developed an OpenMRS-based TB MIS system as part of the Indus Hospital & Health Network’s Global Fund funded Aao TB Mitao initiative for the very first time to manage TB control activities in Pakistan.
Indus Hospital and Health Network has been able to use the MIS system to provide end to end patient management services – right from active screening in communities to tracking treatment for patients.
These MIS systems have been optimized to work in low resource settings while still being able to offer data in real time to make quick, evidence based decisions.
Through this initiative, over 30,000 cases of TB and 8,000 cases of drug-resistant TB, have been identified and enrolled in treatment programs.
In low-resource settings, immunization rates often remain low because of missed appointments and delays. This can be exacerbated by human error during the vaccination process.
To address this barrier, IHS developed a decision support API for client Interactive Research and Development, that can be integrated into any EMR or used on its own, by vaccinators across the globe.
The API automatically constructs catch-up vaccine schedules using information about the child’s vaccination history and current age, adjusting for missed appointments and delayed vaccinations.
TB Reach Wave 6
Utilizing an innovative, systematic active case finding strategy, a project to improve case notification with the National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP), was implemented in the Mymensingh district in Bangladesh.
IHS developed an open source mobile application – backed by OpenMRS – for childhood TB. With options in data entry for screening, diagnosis, contact tracing, and treatment of childhood TB, the project, in collaboration with Interactive Research and Development, was set to identify missing child TB cases across Bangladesh.
This integrated program aided the NTP in minimizing the notification gap and developing refined strategies for addressing the incidence of childhood TB in Bangladesh, and ensuring timely treatment initiation.
OpenMRS National MDR-TB Module Implementation
IHS works extensively with TB projects and clients like WHO, UNDP, Project Hope, around the world. By supporting data management needs and streamlining insights and information on treatment solutions, IHS is increasing efficacy on critical information for Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) patients.
Working in Tajikistan – a globally high MDR-TB burden country – the IHS team adapted the OpenMRS MDR-TB system with a full Russian translation. The system was further expanded to include support for Lab data, a consolidated user interface for DR-TB and DS-TB data entry, a Pharmacovigilance module and customized reporting.
Electronic systems for tracking TB in mining populations
Miners are at high risk of developing TB due to poorly ventilated work conditions. Nearly 500,000 miners from South Africa are at high risk of contracting Tuberculosis, and each miner infected with TB carries the risk of passing this life-threatening disease to his family and community.
To enhance efforts to screen and refer miners for timely treatment, IHS developed an Android phone and tablet based application to streamline the collection and management of data on TB in mining populations in South Africa. A variation of this system – the intial project was by client Interactive Research and Development – was later developed by IHS for IRD South Africa for 10 Southern African countries under TIMS (TB in the Mining Sector in Southern Africa), initiative.
Mobile TB Screening Application
The United Republic of Tanzania is one of the 30 countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the world.
IHS created a mobile application for client University of Maryland in Baltimore, for the screening of TB patients in Tanzania.
Crucial patient data is stored in a central database at the National Tuberculosis Control Program from where reports could be accessed for the ease of health practitioners, streamlined health systems and an expansive recall of patient history