Technical report : Uganda Health Information Network, January 2005 - March 2006

Abstract

The Uganda Health Information Network (UHIN), a joint project of SATELLIFE, Uganda Chartered HealthNet (UCH), and the Makerere University Faculty of Medicine supported with funding provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, is a wireless network employing handheld computers, wireless access points, and the GSM/GPRS telecommunications network for two-way communication and data exchange of medical information and public health data in Rakai, Mbale, and Manafwa districts. The initial pilot project, which ran from September 2003 to December 2004, proved the viability and cost-effectiveness of integrating these technologies into a network capable of supporting health information dissemination and data collection in low-resource environments. Building on those accomplishments, UHIN Phase II (January 2005 – March 2006) expanded UHIN to encompass 160 health centers in Manafwa, Mbale, and Rakai districts…