ABSTRACT
Ignoring the need to contextualise international standards has caused low-resourced countries to implement digital health systems on the ad-hoc, thereby often failing to meet the local needs or scale up. Authors have recommended adapting standards to a country's context. However, to date, most resources constrained countries like Uganda have not done so, affecting their success in attaining the full benefits of using ICT to support their health systems. They apply the standards 'as is' with little regard for their fitness for potential use and ability to fulfil the country's digital health needs. A design science approach was followed to elicit digital health communication infrastructure (DHCI) requirements and develop the contextual DHCI standards for Uganda. The design science methodology's design cycle supported DHCI standards' construction and evaluation activities. Whereas two workgroup sessions were held to craft the standards, three cycles of evaluation and refinement were performed. The final refinement produces the contextualised DHCI standards approved by Uganda's DH stakeholders through summative evaluation. Results of the summative evaluation show that DH stakeholders agree that the statement of the standards and the requirements specification are suitable to guide DHCI standards implementation in Uganda. Stakeholders agreed that the standards are complete, have the potential to realise DHCI requirements in Uganda, that have been well structured and follow international style for standards, and finally, that the standards are fit to realise their intended use in Uganda. Having been endorsed by DH stakeholders in Uganda's health system, the standards should be piloted to establish their potency to improve health information exchange and healthcare outcomes. Also, we recommend other low middle income countries (LMICs) with similar challenges to those in Uganda adopt the same set of contextualised DHCI standards.
ABSTRACT
Several studies have investigated challenges that have marred success or even caused the failure of eHealth implementations in Uganda; however, none has focused on the risks and success factors of their sustainability. This study explored critical risk and success factors for the sustainability of an electronic health data capture, processing and dissemination platform for Uganda. A mixed-method research design was followed involving collecting empirical data from all four regions of Uganda. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select the study districts per region, health facilities per district, and respondents/participants per facility or district. Findings revealed several risks and success factors for sustainability, including; bad leadership, corruption, lack of sustainable maintenance programs, lack of suitable sustainability plans, lack of ICT infrastructure investment, poor management systems, funds, stakeholder buy-ins, data sharing and access rights. The success factors included reinvestments as a partial sustainability plan for ICT infrastructure. These factors can be leveraged to ensure the continued operation of eHealth implementations in Uganda. Every electronic health project aiming at success should always make due consideration/sustainability plan at the onset of project conceptualisation; as lack of such a plan has often resulted in failed projects after the initial funds have been withdrawn.