Masters Theses and Dissertations

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Electronic information capturing, processing and reporting of routine health data using smartphone-based application
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Pascoe, Luba
The primary health facilities are the core source of health data in the current health system. As a core source there is a need for an effective capturing, processing and reporting of this sensitive and crucial data for the smooth functioning of the health sector. In Tanzania, the routine reporting of health data from the primary health facilities to the district level is a manual system in which hard copies of different report forms are physically submitted to the district hospital, a computerized system is being implemented from the district level to the national level. The data collected from the primary health facilities delays and reaches the districts late due to different challenges among them being the remoteness of health facilities to the district hospitals. The delay causes the districts to fail in utilizing the collected data effectively to make evidence-based decisions. The research aimed to bridge the technological gap that exists in the utilization of Information and Communication Technology in the health sector and thus address the late reporting problem by enabling data transfer through a smartphone-based application. A qualitative research methodology is carried out coupled with agile development methodology for mobile applications in the design and development of the mobile phone reporting application As a result, a smartphone-based application for reporting routine health data is developed which will facilitate on time submission of reports, improvements on the reporting frequency and reduction on the cost for reports submission. The reporting officers will no longer travel physically to the district hospital to submit the reports.
Modelling the dynamics of rabies transmission among dogs and to human and livestock in communities within and around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Ega, Tesfaye
Rabies is one of the neglected tropical diseases that has persisted for centuries in Ethiopia, and it is endemic within and around Addis Ababa. In this dissertation, we propose a deterministic mathematical model with vaccination to study the dynamics of rabies transmission within and around Addis Ababa. The model comprises human, dog and livestock populations and formulated as a system of ordinary differential equations. Basic reproduction number 0 R and effective reproduction number e R are computed using next generation operator. For specified values of parameters 0 R and e R work out to be 2 and 1.6 respectively, which indicate the disease will be endemic. When 1 e R  the disease-free equilibrium 0  is globally asymptotically stable in a feasible region  . When 1 e R  there exists one endemic equilibrium point which is locally asymptotically stable. According to sensitivity analysis, the natural death rate of dogs 𝜇𝑑 , the annual birth rate of dogs 𝜗𝑑 , dog-to-dog transmission rate 𝛽𝑑, and disease induced death rate of dogs 𝜎𝑑 are found to be the most sensitive parameters of e R . Numerical simulations of our system show that rabies transmission will increase within and around Addis Ababa, and will peak in 2026 and 2033 in human and livestock populations respectively. Applying 25% vaccination coverage for livestock population will reduce the future infection by half. This study suggests that a combination of interventions consisting of 60% of vaccination coverage in dog population, 15% culling of stray dogs, and reducing the annual crop of newborn puppies by 25% will reduce the number of human and livestock infections by 70%, and the disease will be eradicated from the community.
Sensor based method for water monitoring in smallholder irrigatted agriculture Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Njuu, Kevin
Monitoring water use in traditional irrigation canals is critical for any water management best practice to function. In Tanzania, water basin authorities and users association have been created to distribute and levy water usage fee in view of avoiding conflicts. Although much has been done over the years, the authorities have so far failed to ensure the desired equity, fairness and transparency. This is largely attributed to high deployment cost which constrains the uptake of various technologies. In agriculture, one of the commonly used technologies is sensors. Effective utilization of sensors requires a design that matches the physical and connectivity environment of the area. In this dissertation, we present such a system of wireless sensor network designed for the purpose of improving water management in farmer-led irrigation. The system consist of a low-cost design of a sensor system that measures water depths at specific canal points and transmits the measurements to a central system. The central system transforms the measurements into discharge values using a locally established rating curve. For the end user, we have provided a web based application for administering the canals; visualize canal discharge values; and generating reports. The system can easily be scaled up to monitor larger networks of canals, and can therefore be a game changer when deployed.
A data analytic module for nutrition screening of children under five years in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Nyanjara, Sarah
Malnutrition is one of the major health problems in the world, and more prevalent in developing countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that malnutrition is associated to half of all deaths of children under five years. In Tanzania it is estimated that 43,000 children die and the government loses up to Tsh. 700 billion annually due to the effects associated with malnutrition. Due to its unbearable consequences several international organisation have initiated collective measures to combat malnutrition. Nutrition screening, the process of identifying whether the child is malnourished or not, is a proven and important step towards malnutrition eradication. Regular and effective nutrition screening allows early malnutrition or risk of malnutrition to be identified and proper treatment and malnutrition management to be effected. The whole process of nutrition screening and malnutrition management in Tanzania still requires a lot of improvements. The studies show that the nutrition screening is not effective and it is mostly manual. The process includes the use of papers (clinic card) in recording anthropometrics measurement and that Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) is the only tool used for nutrition screening despite the already identified shortcomings. In this study, a nutrition data analytic module for nutrition screening for children under five years is proposed and developed. The system will have the ability to store child records after the child is registered, perform nutrition screening to identify if the child is well nourished or malnourished, and establish the current state of malnourished child in order to allow appropriate action to be taken by a health worker. Additionally the progress of malnourished child will be established to allow proper malnutrition management. The module has the ability to create reports which will help researchers, stakeholders and other users to get nutrition related data and information and malnutrition trends. This study puts in place a nutritional data analytic module for nutrition screening. This will facilitate effective nutrition screening of children and hence improve children nutrition health.
Development of RFID and mobile application based attendance management system: a case study of secondary schools in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Sospeter, Joseph
In recent years, the development of different technologies has opened new possibilities for different activities to be accomplished easily in a smooth way. The rapid development in mobile phone technologies especially mobile phone based information system has contributed much in facilitating automation of activities in different sectors like Education, Agriculture, Health, etc. Mobile phone technology has continued to evolve in terms of computation power, speed, memory capacity and screen size. Many mobile applications for different activities especially on the Android platform as the free software are being developed. Another technology which has shown tremendous development and application in the recent years is the Radio Frequency Identification. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects(wikipedia). It has been around for many decades but now days it is becoming the more relied technology in the area of tracking objects due to its low cost and accuracy as compared to other auto-ID technologies like biometric systems and barcodes. The most interesting and widely used applications of RFID include those for supply chain management, security, and the tracking of important objects and personnel(Weinstein, 2005). Based on the suitability, development and applicability of both RFID and mobile phone technologies, this research analyze and develop the low cost RFID and mobile application based attendance management system which is proposed to be used in ordinary level schools to efficiently manage student attendances. The system is proposed and designed in consideration of financial capacity and environmental challenges of educational institutions especially ordinary level schools in Tanzania. Currently, the attendance management of both students and employees is being done manually using attendance registers. Employees’ signs the attendance register book in the morning using attendance register books where for students, the responsible personnel call a roll call every day using attendance register books. Manual way of taking students and employees’ attendance using attendance registers and class journals is inefficient, time consuming and error prone. This system aims to replace the manual paper based system.
An integrated mobile application for enhancing management of nutrition information in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Mduma, Neema
Malnutrition contributes to over one half of the deaths of children under age of five years in developing countries and is the single greatest cause of child mortality in Tanzania. Studies reveal that, the issue of malnutrition is aggravated by lack of nutrition information especially in rural communities. Absence of proper tools makes collection, management and access to nutrition information very difficult. This study improves accessibility of nutrition information by taking advantage of the advanced mobile technologies and develops a system for managing nutrition information. The system was implemented using a mixed approach involving qualitative techniques whereby the requirements and fact finding was done through interviews and literature review. Unified Modelling Language (UML) technique was used to design and model the user requirements and system specification. PHP, MySQL, XML and Java were used to complement the development of this system. The developed mobile-based nutrition information management system was then integrated with existing Health Centre System and is able to provide a platform that gives mothers instant access to nutritional tips, allow them to interact with nutrition practitioners and help in record keeping. The results demonstrate the potential of using mobile technology for collection and delivering nutrition information in various sectors. In particular, this system could be adopted to improve prenatal and postnatal health in Tanzania and therefore help in bringing down the number of deaths of children under age of five.
Developing a cost-effective computing model for optimal diets for people living with HIV
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Kowa, Yasin
People living with HIV (PLWHIV) without proper treatment are vulnerable to many kinds of opportunistic infections due to their weaker immune systems than healthy people. Poor nutrition intensifies the progression of HIV into AIDS by further compromising the immune system. Therefore, achieving basic nutritional recommendations is important at all stages of the disease. However, economic limitation (poverty) and lack of knowledge to find adequate amounts with right combinations of different locally available foods hinders them to meet the recommended daily nutrients requirements, leading them to become weak in a very short time and even experience early mortality. In this research, I developed a mathematical model and extended it to a MATLAB based graphical user interface (GUI) that could be used as a computation tool to compute adequate amounts of available foods to achieve the recommended nutrients at a minimum cost compared to an alternative. The mathematical model is the combination of multiple linear regression models and a linear programming model. Multiple linear regression models use the factors of age, weight, height, and gender to predict the nutritional requirements in the body. The results from the multiple linear regression model were used to define the constraints in the linear programming model. The linear programming model was used to compute the adequate amounts of foods that would lead to the achievement of the recommended nutrients taking into consideration practical biological/physical and economic constraints. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed by the Graphical User Interface Development Environment (GUIDE) method in MATLAB. With the incorporated mathematical models it could be used to compute the adequate amount of foods. The GUI has five parts: the first part contains list of foods the user needs to select, the second part is to enter user’s particulars of age, weight, height and gender. The third part is to enter the cost of each selected foods. The fourth part is the computation part, which will initiate the computation. There is a status box, which shows whether the food combinations and financial constraints produce an optimal or non-optimal output and a reset button to enable clearance of previous computations and allowance of new data entrances. The last part is the output section which displays the amounts of foods to be bought and the total cost to be incurred when the computation is optimal. Results show that the multiple linear regression model has high predictive power by suggesting values that are close to the recommended daily/dietary intake (RDI). This was validated by testing the mean difference between paired samples using a t-test. By this analysis we found that there was no statistical ii difference between the means as the p  values were greater than the significance level of 0.05. The cost for optimal diets was less when model predicted values are used to limits the constraints in linear programming compared to when RDI values are used. The GUI developed could serve as the computation tool to compute adequate amount of foods to meet the recommended nutrients at minimum costs.
Management information system for enhancing land use planning in Tanzania: a case of Arumeru and Mvomero districts
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Thambikeni, Micky
Land as a natural resource plays a major role in the livelihood and in a growth of any country, therefore an effective land management can help communities and Governmental institutions to easily plan and manage land resources. Due to the complexity involved in land issues, land management has not been an easy task especially in developing countries. Land information in Tanzania is kept manually especially at districts land offices. This is due to the lack of proper and computerized systems such as the proposed Land Information System (LIS). The manual way of handling land use information cause unnecessary issues which causes land resources management practices difficult. Literature review, Analysis and feasibility study were done to understand the context of land use information management which is important to determine the system user requirements. The study look at how districts do land administration and how LIS can be applied in supporting land administration processes. We then propose, design and develop the LIS. The structures and functionalities of the LIS are developed using UML notation. The implemented prototype of the LIS system demonstrates the system features. This dissertation aims to improve land administration at the districts in Tanzania particularly allocation of land uses and valuation by using LIS. To conclude, application of LIS in land administration at district level have impact towards improving performance in delivering land services to the customers as well as enhancing valuation process. This is based on the fact that LIS can ensure the availability, security and accuracy of land information. The proposed LIS helps in optimizing decision making when it comes to land issues.
Development of radio frequency identification (RFID)-based drug management and monitoring system, case of public hospitals in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Ishabakaki, Prisila
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the wireless technology which uses radio frequency waves to transfer data for the purpose of automatic identification and tracking the intended objects. Recently, the adoption of Radio frequency technology in health sector has been a field of major interest due to automatic data capturing and processing capability of the technology. RFID consists of reader and tag; the reader is used to capture information stored in tag and transfer it to the enterprise information system. RFID has recently been applied in hospitals to control and track hospital inventories, supply chain management and medication error controlling. However, the process is being done manually; paper-based documentation and records keeping are used. This manual work consumes time and resources which in turn presents difficulties during tracking and auditing. This scenario has therefore caused occurrence of incidences of drug theft and diversion by unfaithful health workers. In lieu of that, a system for management and monitoring the pharmaceutical supplies in hospital environment has been developed, in this study. The research started with review and analysis of the existing system and procedure in hospital pharmacy management and monitoring to exploit potential gap to be fulfilled by the proposed research. Then, the analysis of the problem domain was carried out to identify the system requirements that were used to design and implement RFID based drug monitoring and management system. The developed system was implemented and validated.
Modeling the impact of vaccination on the epidemiology of measles in a metapopulation
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Mpande, Leopard
In this research, a metapopulation model is formulated as a system of ordinary differential equations to study the impact of vaccination on the spread of measles. An expression for the effective reproduction number 𝑅𝐶 for the metapopulation system and 𝑅𝐶𝑖 (𝑖 = 1,2) for the two patches when there are no individual movements between them are derived using the next generation approach for controlling the disease. The disease-free equilibrium is computed and proved to be locally and globally asymptotically stable if 𝑅𝐶 < 1 and unstable if 𝑅𝐶 > 1. We show that when there are no movements between the two patches, there exists at least one endemic equilibrium for all 𝑅𝐶𝑖 > 1 and bifurcation analysis of the endemic equilibrium point proves that forward (supercritical) bifurcation occurs in each patch. Sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number 𝑅0 for metapopulation system is performed and we found that movement rates from patch 2 to patch 1 tend to increases measles infection in a metapopulation while movement rates from patch 1 to patch 2 tend to decrease measles infection in a metapopulation. Numerical simulation results are also presented to validate analytical results and to show the impact of vaccination on incidence and prevalence of measles in the metapopulation.
Development of discharge letter module onto care2x hospital information system
(2019-01) Wambura, Wambura M.
The discharge letter (DL) is an important means to communicate the information of the patient's hospital visit, treatments and care plans to the next caregiver and, possibly also, to the patient. Timely, precise and comprehensive discharge information transfer between patients care providers is critical for ensuring patients safety and effective care. A growing number of hospitals are implementing an open source system, Care2x as hospital information system (HIS) in Tanzania. One of the weaknesses for Care2x is that it cannot generate an electronic discharge letter. The main objective of this study was to develop an electronic discharge letter module and integrate it onto Care2x HIS. Interviews were performed with nine (9) physicians from three (3) hospitals, who were users of Care2x system, with a qualitative structured questionnaire to get their views and opinions on the contents of the discharge letter and on the corresponding usability requirements for it. Thereafter, a literature review on the following terms; Hospital Discharge letter, Hospital Discharge Communication, Care2x was performed. The schema of the new Discharge Letter module for Care2x HIS was developed and added to the existing Care2x schema. The DL module was implemented and users‟ user experiences were collected on the use of the developed discharge letter. In this study, the users were very satisfied with the electronic discharge letter. The users saw that the discharge letter module solved many problems associated with handwritten letter in terms of timeliness of production, the correctness of information, content, and legibility in hospitals which use Care2x.
A Web-based application for recommendation of open source software for higher learning institutions in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2019-02) Okey, Ambokile
Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) perform a vital role in developing students to professionals, and in contributing to social and industrial development through research outputs and delivering professional support to different organizations. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has led to the high use of software tools for supporting the roles of HLIs to deliver high-quality research and education. However, most of the Proprietary Software (PS) tools are expensive, hence hindering HLIs in Tanzania from using them for their core activities. Open Source Software (OSS) provide advantages for HLIs because they remove the cost of acquiring licenses and prevent software illegality issues. However, in Tanzania, most of HLIs do not use OSS due to lack of awareness. This study aimed at improving the adoption of OSS in Tanzanian HLIs through enhancement of individual awareness on the existing OSS designed for academic purposes using a recommender application. The application uses three recommendation approaches: content-based, demographic and collaborative filtering. Questionnaires were used for identifying currently used software in different academic areas of specializations and gathering requirements for development of a web-based application. Further, it explored useful OSS designed for academic purposes from online platforms and categorized them according to their academic area of use. The list of categorized OSS were uploaded to the application’s database and used as a foundation for recommendations. The developed application passed a test against users’ requirements as it was able to: recommend OSS, send notification through user’s email, allow view and download, and accept users’ feedbacks.
Development of a web and mobile application for drug abuse information awareness
(NM-AIST, 2019-02) Mnunguli, Joyce Philipo
The harmful use of illicit drugs, “Drug Abuse”, is the most frequent problem in the world. The awareness creation of drug abuse information to the community reduces the usage of illegal drugs. The collection and management of addicts’ data, statistics about addicts, storage and accessibility of drug abuse information are conducted on paper-based approaches. This results in several problems such as loss of data, time consumption in data collection and delay in reporting. This study aimed to improve accessibility of drug abuse information through development of mobile application for addicts’ data collection and web application for accessibility of drug abuse information awareness and retrieval of treatment center reports. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observations. The study shows that there is limited information on drug abuse issues to the community. The developed mobile and web applications were evaluated and tested through field study to assess usability and effective of data entry. The applications improve accessibility of drug abuse information, addicts’ data collection and reporting, statistics on drug usage and number of addicts on treatment, storage of addicts’ information and improving awareness program conducted by the drug control commission. Thus, provides drug abuse information awareness to the community, policy makers and researchers. The viability of both developed mobile and web application is to minimize resources such as human effort, cost, and time consumption during data collection, as well as appropriate storage of addicts’ data. A case study of Dar es Salaam and Arusha regions in Tanzania.
Secure M-health system for enhancing a confidential access of HIV/AIDS healthcare information in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2019-02) Mwammenywa, Ibrahim A.
For many years, stigma has been hindering people in the society from freely going to the Care and Treatment Centres (CTCs) to receive the HIV/AIDS healthcare information such as counselling, treatment and HIV/AIDS related education as well as other HIV/AIDS healthcare services. This research focuses on the development of a secure integrated m-health platform for enhancing the HIV/AIDS healthcare information delivery in Tanzania. With this platform, an easy, timely and secured access to relevant HIV/AIDS healthcare information can be achieved without people being disclosed, identified and subjected to the stigma. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) model was adopted during the system development within this study. The system requirements were modelled into the Data Flow Diagram (DFD) in order to obtain the clear flow of the HIV/AIDS healthcare information between the clients and HIV/AIDS healthcare practitioners. With the use of different software development tools and environment such as Android studio, Symfony framework, and PostgreSQL Database; both android application and web-based system were developed. This study developed a secure m-health platform for HIV/AIDS healthcare information delivery. The developed system was tested for individual module functioning as well as the functioning of the fully integrated system. The platform provides a confidential and anonymously one-to-one live communication between a client and an HIV/AIDS healthcare practitioner. Moreover, the system provides the clients with the HIV/AIDS healthcare tips, and nearest CTC among other useful features of the developed system in this research. Finally, the user acceptance survey concluded that the developed system was positively accepted by the users and commended the ministry of health to officially deploy the system for enhanced delivery of HIV/AIDS healthcare information.
Development of horticulture extension support system for the small holder farmers: A case of Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2019-02) Maginga, Theofrida Julius
Horticulture as part of agricultural sector plays the role for food security, economic growth and nutrition improvement in developing countries. It draws attention for most governments as the main source of employment. Following the governments’ recognition of agricultural extension as key facilitator for achieving high crop productivity and an enabler to knowledge resources, number of extension officers have been recruited to help farmers. However, these extension officers cannot reach every farmer due to lack of enough resources and cultural barriers. Consequently, uniform availability of clear information for vegetable cultivations, on crop requirements, climatic information, pests and diseases is a challenge. Meanwhile, there are number of extension support systems that do not meet all the requirements. On this study, a survey that included 145 small holder farmers and 30 agronomists from three regions located in three main horticultural zones in Tanzania was conducted. The data collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings depicted that a significant number of farmers are not so familiar with ICT enabled horticulture extension support systems. The analysis results also indicated few technological systems that do not yet serve all the farmers. Therefore, in this study an ICT-enabled horticulture extension support system has been developed to help farmers make proper decisions on vegetable cropping systems. The application provides information such as best sowing period of the crop based on weather data in a particular location, crop harvest day, crop requirements, crop pests and disease. Accessibility of this information will help to improve vegetable crop productivity.
A mobile based system for pesticides authenticity verification: a case of Tanzanian market
(NM-AIST, 2019-02) Ngirwa, Catherine Cleophace
Pesticides authenticity plays a great role in human health and environmental protection also economic progress of users, dealers and the government. In ensuring that authentic pesticides are sold in Tanzania, laws have been enacted and government bodies given mandate to enforce these laws. Despite the efforts, counterfeits are still found in markets. Data collection of this study involved one staff from pesticides regulatory authority (Tropical Pesticides Research Institute-TPRI), a total of six staffs from pesticides registrants/formulators/importers and 170 pesticides users preferably farmers all from Arusha region. Methods used were interviews and questionnaires. Findings revealed there is no any information system which is used by TPRI in managing pesticides information as well inspection is done on experience in threat areas. Furthermore, the dealers declared being victims of their products being counterfeited and pesticides customers have no reliable means of authenticating pesticides during purchase. Due to that, an ICT based solution to the identified problems was developed. The system contains two main parts which are a mobile application developed using Android Studio and web application using Python Flask framework having MySQL managed database. Therefore, this study not only targets in resolving the issue of authentic pesticides products, reporting of problems for products which haven’t worked as expected and the pesticides uses health tips. But also, management of pesticides information, handling of reported complaints and locating counterfeits by the TPRI. It likewise promises increase in the Tanzanian government revenue through levies.
Improved integrated care2x hospital management information system with national health insurance fund system
(NM-AIST, 2019-03) Haule, Abel
The advancement of technology observed today has led to the development of many Health Management and Information Systems (HMIS), which are cost-effective, reliable, scalable and flexible. However, the Integrated Health Management and Information System (iHMIS) plays a crucial role in the dissemination of information, which helps in decision-making. The care2x HMIS in Tanzania lacks a module to exchanges data between Care2x HMIS and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) claims management system. The absence of this module in Care2x has effect in patients’ waiting time, the accuracy of submitted claims, the time used in processing claims, and costs incurred in printing claims forms. This study aimed at improving health services by developing an integrated data exchange module between Care2x HMIS and NHIF claim management system, with Arusha and Kilimanjaro selected as the case study due to the presence of a large number of health facilities. Furthermore, the integrated data exchange module was developed by using PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming languages. The developed module reduces patient waiting time, cost in processing claims and increase accuracy in processing claims. Additionally, this study digitized the NHIF form, thus reducing paperwork and human resource in filling forms. Further, the developed integrated data exchange module enabled NHIF personnel to verify claims before processing payment. The viability of this study is to enhance health service in health facilities.
Tuberculosis E-health module in care2x for improved healthcare delivery at Kibong’oto infectious diseases hospital
(NM-AIST, 2019-03) Mark, Patrick Njau
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a global cause of millions of deaths yearly. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that TB can completely be eliminated with proper treatment and monitoring tools and systems in place. It has therefore developed a strategy to end TB worldwide, the Stop TB Strategy focusing on eliminating TB by 2035. World Health Organization recommends the use of Electronic Medical Recording (EMR) systems to support data managements in care and treatment of TB patients. At Kibong’oto Infectious Diseases Hospital (KIDH), formerly Kibong’oto National TB Hospital (KNTH) in Tanzania, management of TB care and treatment data used a paper-based system. Therefore, this study aimed to improve management of TB at KIDH through digitization of TB care and treatment. To accomplish the aim, a module was developed, integrated and tested in the existed Care2x Hospital Management Information System (HMIS). Care2x HMIS being web based and open source modular system, developed using Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript and using My Structured Query Language (MySQL) backend database for data storage, enabled extending its functionality by developing and integrating into it a module to provide means for capturing and storing WHO recommended TB data elements. The viability of the developed module is to improve capturing of all required TB care and treatment data elements through imposing data validation rules, controlled access to TB data, timely reports generation with reduced human effort, easy monitoring of patients’ treatment and reducing running costs. Thus, generally improving overall TB management.
Centralized admission system for advanced level private schools: case of Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2019-03) Fujo, Mwapashua
This research takes a look at the various challenges facing admission procedures for Advanced Level (A-Level) private schools case of Kilimanjaro Region in Tanzania. A total of 150 questionnaires was distributed to parents, A-Level students and school staffs, to find out procedures likewise the challenges being faced in the course of carrying out admission procedures and their level of satisfaction of the existing admission system. Thereafter, the analysis of the survey results confirms and quantify that 93.5% of admissions into A-Level private schools are performed manually by ink and paper. This manual system has its major problems which include difficulty in locating an appropriate school and subjects an applicant can get admissions, crucial times, wastage of time, and loss of forms and mutilation of forms throughout the entire method for admission. Consequently, the findings determined that, the admission system can only be improved by a new online software tool. To mitigate these challenges a centralized web-based solution, namely a Tanzania Central Processing Admission System (TCPAS) has been developed to resolve the identified admission challenges. The TCPAS tool has indicated outstanding changes towards maintenance of admission costs, control of forgery on entry qualifications, encourage the use of paperless admission, simplify admission process, reach of several geographically scattered candidates, and enhancing centralized data handling capability.
Reducing fragmentation in sharing of information in e-medical recording systems: case of open Mrs and care2x
(NM-AIST, 2019-03) Rweikiza, Geofrey
Integration of the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) with clinical research systems has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency, speed, and safety of medical research. New hypotheses could be generated through mining of EMR data, observational studies may be conducted more rapidly, and clinical trial recruitment and conduct could be greatly facilitated. Such enhancements will be accomplished through secondary use of EMR data for research and the development of automated decision support systems that rely on EMR data. In this study we defined the various types of EMR and clinical research data systems in use and described the goals and rationale for integrating these two types of systems to enhance research as well as quality of care. The various approaches and benefits to integrating EMR and clinical research systems are discussed and data integration was prototyped on Open MRS and Care2X health information systems. Medical Records Exchange System (MRES) prototype was developed for exchange of information on Open MRS and Care2x hospital information systems. While major benefits are conferred by such system integration, many challenges exist as well, such as the need for stringent data quality assurance, appropriate granularity, metadata and person index management, and extremely careful handling of data access and security issues. Furthermore, the movement toward the EMR within Tanzania has been slow to date, hampering these data integration efforts. However, recent legislation to incentivize the adoption of EMRs will make the feasibility and utility of EMR data integration to support clinical research more promising in the near future.

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