We greatly value the privacy of patient data and take steps to make sure that this data is protected. The data can be viewed through the website which is secured using https and requires authentication. There is no direct access to the database so as to avoid any unauthorized changes. Only the phones in our study are able to post data to the server and they can be deactivated on the server end if we decide to no longer accept data from them if they are lost or stolen.
The mobile application is built around the notion of roles and each role provides different functionality and menu options to the user so the enrollment worker will have different options than the clinician even though they use the same software. The administrator can configure the roles on the phone after properly authenticating themselves to the system. The focus during development was to make the menu options as simple as possible for the users while retaining all the functionality that we have in there now. The same phones can be moved from one role to another as and when the need arises. We were gifted these 50 phones by Nokia so we need to ensure they go a long way!
Even though the cell phone service providers cover an extensive area in Pakistan, there are certain areas where GPRS is patchy and flaky. We have also had instances where the server side network had gone down due to the roads being dug up. To account for the GPRS issues, we queue up the messages on the phone and store them locally on the device until the message can be sent. We also provide the capability that the data being submitted tries on alternate network addresses to provide redundancy.
The other issue that we faced was finding skilled Java programmers in Pakistan. In the IT sector currently, most of the people are concentrating on C# and .Net. Open Source awareness is limited since people, sadly, are happy to use pirated copies of software here. The other issue that certain people may have is that being a non-profit organization we are not always able to compete with the commercial organizations in the salary department. Our financial obligations first are towards helping the patients so technology spending has to take a back seat. In the study, we face very few issues e.g. parents who object to having RFIDs on the kids. Some patient parents are initially reluctant, but we offer incentives like free health care, gift baskets and send them wellness reminders etc
IRD made it to the final 20 out of 52 submissions from 21 countries. The criterion was simple: to have a NFC based entry. We are very honored and humbled to have won amongst some tough competition. Compared with the social networking and other commercial competing entries, our application stood out due to its social implications in its purpose to help people. The hope now is that this will highlight the work we are doing here in Pakistan.