mobiEMR - An integrated and generic custom DHIS2 and FHIR conformant Android app for community health workers

This abstract has been accepted at the 2024 DHIS2 Annual Conference


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session link: Integration Lessons & Stories From The Field

mobiEMR - An integrated and generic custom DHIS2 and FHIR conformant Android app for community health workers

mobiEMR App is designed to assist organisations that provide and consume referrals services. It can also be used for educational outreach projects through the use of cohorts. The system was designed on a use case aimed at supporting almost 6000 community health workers using Android devices for data collection and use in community level HIV prevention programs for Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) and Key Populations. The program is implemented across Zimbabwe by the National AIDS Council (NAC) with Technical Assistance provided by the HISP Centre at University of Oslo, HISP Zimbabwe, and Itinordic AS through support provided by UNDP and Global Fund. mobiEMR makes use of the Android platform and is designed to be highly configurable through the use of server based configuration files. It is also designed to have offline capabilities. The app has a client server architecture with the client and server highly integrated. The server is responsible for communicating with third party services like DHIS2 and FHIR. This simplifies the development of the app and isolates the app from interface changes. The app architecture uses Jetpack Compose backed by Mobius from spotify. The combination of these technologies allows the app to use view composition with a single state hierarchy similar to Reactjs and Redux. This style of app makes use of events to change the model and the ui renders this updated model. The system is customisable to work in different sectors, but the main target is the health sector. The plan is to provide Non Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe with a product that can assist in data collection, referrals and outreach projects. The main differentiator that separates mobiEMR app from other apps is the level of customizability. This allows the user interface to be defined at the server. Validations and navigations can also be defined.The app makes use of an expression/rules engine that allows for greater flexibility in terms of computations and logical operations (decision making). mobiEMR uses KeyCloak to secure services on the app and its fast single sign-on functionality. After registration, a client can choose to allow mobiEMR to access information from DHIS2 and it also allows users to submit metadata and aggregate data using the web API through an interoperability layer.

Primary Author: Clifford Chidawanyika


Keywords:
Community Workflows Customisability Android DHIS2 FHIR Interoperabilty Standardisation Single sign-on

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