Hi all,
I have been wondering about this for a while and thought I should ask in this forum.
Is there a reason why the CHT platform does not use push notifications to signal the creation of a new task?
It does not come naturally for a user to make it a duty to open the CHT platform several times a day (and sync) to see new tasks. Having notifications will be very helpful.
It looks like a feature that should be in the CHT but isn’t so I am wondering if there is a reason for this?
ps: I use CHT on the web, not the mobile app.
Robert
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Hi @nsaibirni … thanks for posting!
Push notifications are something that were considered early on but we haven’t had much demand for implementing them, primarily due to usage patterns of typical CHWs. Tasks are most often generated based on data already on a CHWs phone and relevant on the scale of days not minutes or seconds, so it’s generally not necessary to check for new Tasks multiple times per day since their task list won’t really change throughout the day (unless they submit more reports). We’ve seen that CHWs often open their apps several days per week and even multiple times per day (here’s how you can check how many days per month).
We have explored some use cases where Tasks are generated server side and CHWs won’t know about them until they sync… the “Loss to Follow-up” use case is a good example of this. Since many CHWs keep cellular data off for long periods of time or need to physically go somewhere to have cellular data/internet, we’ve seen some projects configure SMS notifications to CHWs telling them there is a new task and they need to go somewhere to sync.
Can you tell us a bit more about your specific use cases? Are you generating Tasks for CHWs server-side several times throughout the day?
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Hi @michael,
Wow, thank you for the explicit response.
We use the CHT in a slightly different setting for disease surveillance. Tasks are generated for individuals at different levels of the health pyramid: health facility, district, region, and lab. The facility notifies and investigates new case alerts, the district can assist in investigations but must validate/invalidate all alerts, etc.
At the health facility, they are similar to the CHWs and I can open the app several times either to notify new cases or to investigate the cases they reported.
However, at the district and regional levels, they need a sign that a facility in their area has notified a new case and they need to assist in case investigation or the alert has been investigated and needs to be validated/invalidated. What happens now is, the health facility calls the district officer on the phone and informs them of the new case but this is only in situations where the facility requires help in investigating the case. Push notifications can be quite helpful in here.
I’m not sure I have been clear 
, don’t hesitate to tell me to explain more.
Robert
Makes sense, thanks for the explanation!
A couple more questions…
- Are these users configured as offline users?
- What type of devices are they using at the district/regional level (phone, tablet, desktop)?
- Would the notifications go to both regional AND district or are the notifications only relevant for one or the other?
- For one district, is it one specific person that needs to receive the notification or multiple people?
- For one district, how many people would be able to complete the required action (investigate/validate)?
- For one region, is it one specific person that needs to receive the notification or multiple people?
- For one region, how many people would be able to complete the required action (investigate/validate)?
Hi Michael,
I have added responses below.
-
Are these users configured as offline users?
– Yes all users are offline but we try to make sure all users from the district level up, have a working internet connection like 80 percent of the time.
-
What type of devices are they using at the district/regional level (phone, tablet, desktop)?
– Android tablets
- Would the notifications go to both regional AND district or are the notifications only relevant for one or the other?
– Both regional AND district
- For one district, is it one specific person that needs to receive the notification or multiple people?
– One person per district and one person per region. Actually, this design is based on logistics as we could only provide one tablet. In the region, for instance, there are several persons who participate in surveillance and play the same role.
- For one district, how many people would be able to complete the required action (investigate/validate)?
– same response as above
- For one region, is it one specific person that needs to receive the notification or multiple people?
– idem as above
- For one region, how many people would be able to complete the required action (investigate/validate)?
– idem as above.
Got it, thanks. Are the tablets (used by the district/regional users) data only or do they have a phone number too?
Hi Michael,
Sorry, I missed this.
Yes, the users only use data. No phone numbers.
Robert