Tuberculosis E-health module in care2x for improved healthcare delivery at Kibong’oto infectious diseases hospital

Abstract

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.