Submissions/ICT Intervention to enhance health services and information to mothers and children In rural communities in Jordan

After careful consideration, the programme committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2013 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no.: 5003
Subject no.: O

Title of the submission: ICT Intervention To Enhance Health Services and Information to Mothers and Children in Rural Communities in Jordan

Type of submission: Presentation

Author of the submission: Dr. Edward Jaser

Country of origin: Jordan

Affiliation: Princess Sumaya University for Technology

E-mail address: e.jaser@gmail.com

Username: e.jaser and ejaser

Personal homepage or blog: http://psut.academia.edu/EdwardJaser

Abstract

Rural communities in developing countries are faced with many challenges due to its geographical and demographic conditions. This has been evident in many studies and surveys. In this presentation I will share the experience we gained from the implementation of a proof-of-concept ICT intervention to improve services and health information provided to women and children in rural communities in Jordan. The developed system serves as: (1) a tool to disseminate awareness information; (2) a source of medical knowledge to rural communities and clinics serving them; and (3) a tool for clinics to manage immunization of children.

Detailed proposal

In Jordan, as in most third-world countries, quality health services are offered in capital and big cities. This is mainly because those cities offer more opportunities to medical staff to forward their careers in addition to the ease of life beside many other advantages. This leaves rural areas and remote communities deprived of specialized and experienced medical staff. It is not difficult to imagine that many medical cases will have to travel to the capital city or other big cities to obtain needed treatment; or wait till the next medical day in their region (where a consortia of medical doctors visit rural areas) to happen. On the awareness side, government makes leaflet and information available to rural and remote communities through their local clinics. However, penetration rate for printed material are quite low and their impact is questionable. This constitutes a major challenge to governments. This is also apparent even in developed countries as shown in a recent study by Lenthal et al. (Nursing workforce in very remote Australia, characteristics and key issues) addressing the challenges facing rural Australia as a result of decreasing numbers of nurses and midwives. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are now widely considered by developing countries as the motor of growth, the driver of efficiency and effectiveness and the tool to enhance human development. With the advancement of ICTs and the Internet, communication and web-based technologies can be exploited to address the challenge of virtually allowing medical expertise and knowledge to become available to rural areas and remote communities. In recent years, social networking websites (such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter) have become very popular tools to connect people and allow human-human interaction regardless of physical location. Such websites easily attract users as they are discrete, connect large number of individuals and eliminate the middlemen. While most popular networking websites are social in nature, professional networking websites can also be used as a tool to tackle issues and problems in society. Many ICT interventions have been introduced recently to address social challenges including those of rural communities. One very important and priority sector is health. As mentioned earlier, quality health services are specific to large communities only and adequate services or support groups are not widely available for rural areas. Health is among the top sectors that are benefiting from the opportunities that the technology offers as shown in many studies. In this presentation we report the experience gained from one project concerned with enhanced health services to women and children in remote and rural communities in Jordan. This is realized through the design and implementation of a proof-of-concept ICT intervention. The project utilizes access means such as mobile phones to maximize the outreach of information and the utility of the system. The developed system serves as: (1) a tool to disseminate awareness information; (2) a source of medical knowledge to rural communities and clinics serving them; and (3) a tool for clinics to manage immunization of children.

Relevance to Wikimania'13: I will attempt to introduce the importance of Wikipedia as a source of information to a knowledge platform to medical knowledge dissemination and start a discussion with the participants with this regards.

Track: Technology and Infrastructure

Length of presentation/talk: 45 Minutes

Language of presentation/talk: English

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes, if I have a scholarship

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests: N/A

Interested attendees

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BasilGeorge22 (talk) 04:21, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
This is an important presentation. I think that if the time were cut to 25 minutes (or fewer, to allow for discussion) then it would get more attention. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:17, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting subject and rare to be made in a developed country, I look forward for seeing it presented at Wikimania --عباد ديرانية (talk) 02:39, 9 April 2013 (UTC).[reply]
Anthonyhcole (talk) 02:49, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
GastelEtzwane (talk) 15:25, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ijon (talk) 23:45, 15 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Add your username here.