Frontline health workers are the backbone of any effective health system. They are often based in the community and come from the community they serve and play a critical role in providing local context for proven health solutions. They connect families and communities to the health system by providing services where they are most needed, especially in remote and rural areas.
The problems they face in carrying out their duties include: Making accurate diagnosis of ailments due to their limited clinical knowledge; Distant and sometimes non-existent referral networks and decision support; Ineffective methods of recruitment for community health workers as well as poor patient record keeping.
As a medical doctor who has worked in remote villages myself, my solution is a mobile application which educates these health workers using pictorial and video representations of common diseases thereby providing continued medical education. It will include notification of outbreaks, in-built real-time diagnostic and referral support by linking these healthcare workers with a bank of specialists, disease tracking and notification as well as peer-to-peer based recruitment of potential assistants/apprentices.
This solution will ensure early, accurate detection and treatment of disease, utilization of diagnostic and referral support plus disease tracking and outbreak notification.
