Mercer On Mission - 2019
| For more information, contact Robert Watson or, to apply, fill out the Mercer on Mission Student Application |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
| LOCATION | Limited resource health clinics on Roatán, Honduras. |
| FACULTY | • Robert Watson, Ph.D. EGR TCO |
| COURSES | • CSL 210 International Service Learning: Honduras and • TCO 491 Special Topics in international qualitative user research |
| PRESENTATION | Student Volunteer Presentation |
Project summary
The goal of the project is to test a system that could help increase the ability for clinics to care for their patients. Currently, the clinics that we’ll visit spend several days a month processing just the administrative paperwork of the clinic. This system could reduce that time from days to minutes, but we need to find out by testing it in real clinics.
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Improving the efficiency of a clinic makes it possible for the clinic to see more patients without requiring more staff.
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Improving the access to a clinic’s information can help the clinic find new ways to make the best use of their limited resources.
On this trip, we will continue the Fulbright-funded research started in summer 2018 and install prototype patient-record automation systems in three not-for-profit clinics on the island of Roatán, Honduras. These systems will ease the clinics’ paperwork burden and provide the clinics’ with a more detailed awareness of patient health, which, together will help these clinics provide better service to the patients they serve. Your work on this project will help take this project to the next level such that it will be able to help many more clinics.
Most of the work performed on this trip will be interacting with the clinic staff to train and observe them as they adapt to the new systems. The systems being installed are pre-production prototypes, so collecting notes and observations on how the clinic staff adapts the new systems will be a priority task. While on the island, we’ll also be involved with the local community to get to know the people and culture of Roatán.
Who
- Anyone with an interest in clinical information systems or enjoys working with people.
- There are a few positions for more technically-inclined students and we’ll need a social media expert, as well.
- This would be an excellent opportunity to practice your medical or business Spanish with native speakers in a real-world context; however, most of the clinic staff with whom you’ll interact speak both English and Spanish.
A day in the life
- Week 1: Get to know the island and the clinics. Take baseline observations of clinic processes.
- Week 2: Install systems and help clinics get started with them.
- Week 3: Observe the clinics and their staff after they’ve used the system for a week.
- Weekends: Excursions around the island.
When
- 1st session of summer semester, 2019 (Travel dates are tentatively set for May 14 to June 5)
Where
- Roatán is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. Located in the Caribbean Sea, 40 miles north of the Honduran mainland, Roatán is home to the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere.
- While the island is a popular cruise ship destination and famous for its amazing snorkeling and diving, it also home to thousands of people who live in extreme poverty.
- The clinics in which we will be working are supported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to serve the many patients who have very limited means.
Global impact
- Around the world, healthcare clinics with limited resources in remote locations can care for thousands of patients each year. The economic and geographic limitations under which these clinics operate leave many of them keeping patient records on paper, storing them in folders on shelves, and manually tabulating patient and clinic data.
- While paper records are functional, they can suffer from such problems as duplicate and lost records, difficulty in identifying larger patterns in healthcare, and other inefficiencies that can impact the quality of patient care.
- The piClinic console being tested during this mission will help these clinics start automating their records to improve the patient care they can deliver and prepare them for more advanced systems in the future.
| For more information, contact Robert Watson or, to apply, fill out the Mercer on Mission Student Application |