I’m a doctor based in rural Zimbabwe very keen to set up Medic Mobile for our hospital, most urgently for Covid surveillance but hopefully for so much more.
I had a great chat with Shreya but I have one very crucial question. Looking at the requirements for setting it up, I realise we are a little weak on the tech side and probably won’t be able to design our own system from scratch in time, given the steep learning curve. Is there a way we can borrow from the existing workflows from Kenya for example and adapt as necessary?
It sounds like your primary challenge is in setting up and deploying the app. We are in the process of updating the CHT documentation site (to be released later this week). In the meantime, you can use this guide to help with getting started on building and deploying a CHT app. We have also created an Event Based Surveillance workflow and design for app configuration reference.
Hopefully this helps to get you started. Let us know how you progress towards the initial app build and EBS workflow deployment.
Yes, that’s correct and thanks for your response. It is a big stumbling block for us because we are a little limited in technical expertise and even the time to set it all up. Would it be possible to lift a system that is already in use, for example in Kenya, and then tweak it to our own needs? Do you have contacts for the team in Kenya that we could reach out to?
@Jonathan_Fernandes, As @Max has shared, we have surveillance CHT applications (notably the reference application linked above, but also those tailored to the Kenya context). As you suggest, these ready-made CHT Applications may be suitable to your context with minor tweaks.
cc: @philip from our Kenya team. We may need a few days to discuss privacy concerns with stakeholders in Kenya before sharing other application specifics.
Choosing to re-use one of these existing CHT Applications will lessen the burden of setting up your system in Zimbabwe, but you’re still going to have to go through numerous technical steps to get this ready to use. You can’t simply create users for Zimbabwe on our Kenya system, you’ll need to set up a new Zimbabwe instance of this CHT Application. For example, someone needs to do the basics that are required for hosting any web service - getting a server to run it on, getting a domain, SSL certificates, etc. Shreya probably mentioned capacity building services which we offer to help your technical teammates with these steps.
So even with the right CHT Application as your starting point, this is going to require some people with some technical skills and time. If tweaking the application for the Zimbabwe context is required, additional technical skills and time are necessary.
@kenn, thanks for your feedback. We realise that we would need to set up our own systems and that that will require technical expertise. What we are keen to ascertain, while we look around for the right people is the extent of what is required in order to get the system up and running. Our financial reserves are limited so we need to be careful about what is invested (and if we are to rely on volunteer support, what the requirement from them will be) in choosing a system that will work and preferably within the not-so-distant future. If you, @philip or any of the team has any further follow-up from the Kenyan side, that would be great!
Welcome to the Community Health Toolkit community! Please when you get a chance introduce yourself
I am the lead volunteer on the project, working with @Jonathan_Fernandes and the Medic team. Thank you very much for offering to help, we need all the resources that we can get. We are hoping to have a proof of concept system up and running this coming week. The proof of concept is based on the GitHub - medic/config-covid as is out of the box.
I will reach out to you via email and work a way forward.
Hie. My name is Simendi Peter. i think i might be of help. I have been working with medic mobile for quiet some time. if you need my help, I am available. Thank you