NIGERIA – eHealth Africa, a technology platform that designs, implements, manages, and evaluates health problems, has optimized its software applications to improve public health outcomes.

With the Electronic Management of Immunization Data (EMID) application, the organization went beyond optimizing the app to redesigning a new process flow for vaccination data capture.

The redesign of an optimized process flow was necessary as research shows that inadequate health data is a challenge in Nigeria due to unintentional duplication, lack of synchronization and dearth of data storage systems.

The quality of data collection tools and the uncoordinated nature of the collection process compounded the data challenges, thus the need for a redesigned data collection process flow.

“The redesigned process flow was necessary because the new process eliminates the possibility of duplicate records for offline users; utilizes the current quick response (QR) code for easy identification and seamless operation; and eliminates redundant information generated on the Public Registration portal (PubReg),” eHA’s Technical Project Manager, Software Engineering, Dayo Akinleye said.

“The old process flow used the KoboCollect platform, so it did not have these capabilities. It was also unable to synchronize with the District Health Information Software (DHIS2).”

Both process flows allow users to register via the PubReg portal and receive a registration ID before visiting the vaccination center to receive the vaccine. At the vaccination site, both processes allow for manual registration of clients into the EMID physical register and receive a vaccination card with QR code.

eHA’s EMID Project Manager, Stephanie Okpere (right), during a Strategy Group meeting at NPHCDA Headquarters, Abuja.

“The new process departs from the old as it allows for instant validation of clients once registered. Upon successful validation, the optimized EMID system generates a vaccination ID for clients that register at the physical site,” Tope Falodun, eHA’s Associate Project Manager on the EMID project, said.

“For those who register via PubReg, their registration ID is replaced with the vaccination ID, eliminating duplicates, unlike the old system. The new vaccination ID is generated from the QR code for both online and offline clients to avoid duplicate registration.

“If the registration on the optimized (native) app is unsuccessful, the error message redirects the user to the specific item that needs to be updated or corrected. After correcting the error message the recorder saves the information to complete the registration and validation process.”

End users have found the new process flow more responsive than the old one, and better fit for purpose.

Deployment of the native EMID application across Nigeria, with its optimized process flow, guarantees seamless data capture, storage and real-time retrieval.

eHA’s areas of  expertise are data management, project logistics, infrastructure and ICT services, working in the following focus areas: health delivery, public health emergency management, disease surveillance, laboratory and diagnostics, and nutrition and food security.

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