Looking for appropriate software (9)
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Source: "HELINA-L" <HELINA-L@uku.fi>
I'd just like to add my voice to the views of Jeremy Clark. I worked in
the Ministry of Health in Mozambique (with Save the Children Fund UK). I
saw there the remains of many pieces of software that had once been
someone's good idea, but which had ultimately been abandoned. But
Mozambique does have a good computerised Health Information System, used at
provincial and central level.
The keys to long term success are:
1. Ownership. The people repsonsible for entering and maintaining the data
must get some benefit from the system. These benefits are likely to be
that the system saves a lot of time, and it produces outputs (e.g. graphs
and analyses) that they would not otherwise get.
2. Support. It needs to be developed locally, not just produced by some
'expert' (local or foreign) who appears, writes the software, and
disappears. Only if it is developed locally can it be supported locally.
3. Spreadsheet or database. I would certainly go for a database, and a
dBaseIII+ / Clipper / FoxPro system works very well. It runs under DOS or
Windows, and is simple to write. A spreadsheet looks like an attractive
option initially, but it is not easy for untrained users to operate, and is
always vulnerable.
With best wishes.
Malcolm Newdick
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Dr Malcolm Newdick
Manor Cottage
Little Milton
Oxford
OX44 7QB
UK
Tel. & Fax: +44-1865-370771
mailto:mtnewdick@compuserve.com
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