Top three pieces of work - Part 3

Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here.

I find it easier to write when my mood is a bit pensive and even, dare I say it, existential. Writing (and not all is for this blog) is an indulgence during those moods. Volumes of writing have spewed (i think the verb is apt) forth during periods "not so cheery". Things have been on the up and up of late giving me little to no time, or enthusiasm, to write.

But I promised three top pieces of work so here we go.

HP donation and data management at EID lab - In Part 1, I discussed the setup of the EID lab. Now that we are doing 7000 tests a month, we have a significant amount of data being collected at the lab. There are multiple things we wish to do with this data:
-  Analytics to inform decisions - As an example, the data can be mined to understand EID testing coverage across the various regions and target ones with poor coverage.
-  SMS printers - Send results back to sites using 'SMS printers'. Effectively, this involves the central lab sending test results via SMS to the remote sites where they are printed on a battery (rechargeable, of course) operated devices. This will reduce the turnaround time by almost 2 days.
-  SMS reminders - Since we are now collecting the phone numbers for all the mothers, we can send an SMS to the mother asking her to return for her baby's results. This will reduce the loss to followup discussed in the Part 1
- Future enhancement - Online results? Online portal for reports and analytics? Centralised patient records?

Additional IT capacity is required to support these at the central lab. HP approached CHAI with a desire to get involved in this space. CHAI identified this gap as one where HP could add the greatest value. HP is donating, and CHAI is managing, the construction of a data centre at the central lab. This is a data centre with the works - raised floor, closed control cooling, cctv and access control, redundant servers and core switches and storage and backup devices.

In addition, we are working with the local university, Makerere, to create internship opportunities for students to assist with the development of some of these solutions.