Internship! - mHealth with HKI
mHealth Internship with Helen Keller International - Cote d’Ivoir
1. Key activities/tasks expected of the intern: under a DFATD-funded (Canadian Government) regional project on vitamin A supplementation moving towards child survival, we have a few initiatives running that concentrate on ways that access to routine services is increased. Within this framework, we started 3 initiatives that are based on or include mHealth components:
o “SMS / Voice reminder” pilot project (currently in phase II): this is a combination of SMS /voice reminders service linked to a more comprehensive information system based on new technologies (smartphones for client registration, centralized server for client follow-up), whereby we encourage mothers to bring their child to the clinics at 5 specific post-natal care rendezvous (4, 10, 14 weeks for DTP immunizations, 6 months for vitamin A, 9 months for measles and yellow). It is a randomized, double-blind study, and we are planning on expanding and improving this pilot for a better follow up: we want to study closely the impact of this service and having an extra person supporting filed support, research and evaluation activities. In particular, by August we are planning to start phase III to include recruitment of pregnant women at the first ante-natal care visit. Eventually, we want to show a statistically significant different in adherence between tests and controls. This initiative started in August 2012, and will likely continue till mid-2015.
o “e-HIS” pilot: this pilot intervention support the transition from paper-based health information system (HIS) management to e-HIS, again through the use of new technologies. In collaboration with companies such as Microsoft and Axxend, and with the Directorate of Information, Planning and Evaluation (DIPE) of the MoH, we test electronic data collection for routine services to understand whether a new IT-based system would help thorough and timely analysis of epidemiological data, including nutrition information.
o “1 sponsor – 100 children” pilot: currently in a start-up phase, this initiative wants to test the impact of structured follow-up of a given cohort of children by an individual “sponsor”. The sponsor engages, with some support, to follow up the immunization calendar of his sponsored children until the 9th month. One component of the project looks at testing mobile phone simple software to better help sponsors plan for their follow-up activities (through a platform developed by the firm DIMAGI).
2. Place of internship: Abidjan, with extensive travel to the field for project support and M&E.
3. Skills or interest areas we’d like the intern to have:
a. Familiar with new technologies (smartphones, tablets, apps, alternative platforms – i.e., other than Microsoft, such as Android, Google, etc.). No need of an IT expert, but somebody who is at ease with contemporary tools.
b. Broad public health knowledge, but preferably with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition, immunization and preventive health care, health systems.
c. Basic inferential statistics (ability to deal with calculation of samples, errors, power, confidence intervals and statistical significance).
d. Proficient French.
e. Good to great English writing skills.
f. Adaptability / Flexibility (to travel, field living conditions when necessary… that said, Côte d'Ivoire is pretty correct when it comes to field living conditions).
g. Independence, initiative, constructive approach are ideal.
4. Expected duration of the internship: 6 months + is ideal, half-cohorts (pregnancy and 1st year immunization calendar) normally run for at least 9 months each, so 6+6 would be best for getting conclusive evidence on research items (and thus potentially be part of some published piece of research).
