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HEAL Africa ICT

Summary

The HEAL Africa Hospital (www.healafrica.org) in Goma, Democratic of Congo is the primary referral hospital serving civil war-torn region of North Kivu. Together with other organizations also collaborating to help the hospital, I am using my technological background to build up the networking infrastructure for the hospital,  to support Internet access for users in the hospital, to support the development of a hospital information system, and to build up capacity through information technology (IT) training programs.  The hospital information system will be used for billing, inventory management, electronic medical records, and data collection for research.

Over the course of the project we will complete the local area network, upgrade the Internet connection (to a broadband VSAT connection), and begin development of the hospital information system.


In addition to this page, you can learn more about this work by following my blog or these links:


Project Overview

The HEAL Africa Hospital is located in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the border of Rwanda. Its proximity to Rwanda and location in North Kivu places it at the gateway to a high conflict region, home to the world’s largest deployment of UN peacekeeping troops, and haven for the many civilians wounded and raped by the ongoing violence in the area.

HEAL Africa’s mission is “to provide holistic care for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo: training health professionals, strengthening social activists and providing physical, spiritual and social healing.” The hospital is a small, locally-led, grass-roots organization with low administrative costs.  At the same time, they continually partner with and fundraise from many organizations abroad, primarily multinational funding agencies (e.g. UNICEF), non-profits (e.g. Global Strategies for HIV Prevention) and churches (e.g. First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Christ Presbyterian Church in Minnesota), and it is absolutely necessary for them to maintain these ties.  Indeed, many of these partnering organizations also maintain offices on the hospital campus in Goma, from which they run various research and social programs.

Each time a patient comes in, their medical record is retrieved from the files here, or a new file is created. Medical records are sorted by date of first visit.

Each time a patient comes in, their medical record is retrieved from the files here, or a new file is created. Medical records are sorted by date of first visit.

Installing wireless routers with Bizi at HEAL Africa, August 2007

Installing wireless routers with Bizi at HEAL Africa, August 2007

Dr. Kasereka “Jo” and Lyn Lusi, who founded HEAL Africa in 1997, have expressed a need for a robust hospital information system.  Currently, they are using Quickbooks and Excel to manage inventory and billing, sharing information between laptops using USB flash drives. This results in problems with multiple, non-synchronized copies of financial records, as well as the spreading of viruses. In addition, much work is duplicated between the patient records tracking, the accounts tracking, and the inventory tracking, with initial tracking necessarily being prepared on paper before being entered into the accounting software, since the hospital is not networked.

An initial site survey was completed in August 2007 to assess the feasibility of this project.  Essentially – prior to implementation of such software, it is necessary to set up sufficient network infrastructure in the hospital to support a local area network.  (Note: The hospital was entirely rebuilt in 2004 following the volcanic eruption of Mt. Niragongo.)  While there aren’t technical barriers to networking the individual hospital campuses, we have also discussed the possibility of using wifi routers to link the Jubilee Center and the main hospital, about 200m away.

In consultation with the HEAL Africa staff, our partners in Australia are developing hospital information management system based on SugarCRM.

Project Scope

  1. Network Infrastructure: Set up a Local Area Network (LAN) for the hospital, using appropriate technologies.
  2. Broadband Internet + Business Plan: Secure a broadband provider for the hospital, and identify an appropriate business plan to cover the monthly cost of the subscription
  3. Hospital Information System: Develop a hospital information system to support billing and inventory management for Heal Africa
  4. ICT Staff Training: Provide computer training classes to develop the skills of the doctors and other hospital staff using the resources of the IT infrastructure in the hospital.

B. Partners

First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
http://fpcberkeley.org

Christ Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, MN, USA
http://www.cpconline.org

CNEC Partners International
http://www.cnecpi.com.au/

Fundraising Goals

I am raising funds to cover the costs of my work in Goma, past and present.  Current funds raised will first go towards the upcoming January trip.  However, please consider contributing towards the cost of prior trips as well.

Project Expenses

  • Travel Expenses: While I am in Uganda, each trip generally entails a $35 visa for US citizens, $50 for Ugandan Citizens, plus either public transportation ($50 round-trip per person) or vehicle expenses ($10 import charges + $200 in fuel round-trip. Trips longer than one week entail visa expenses of $220.
    • May 13-23, 2009: $220 visa, $50 transport
    • September 25-27, 2009: $85 for two visas, $200 for fuel
    • January 20-23, 2009: $135 for three visas, no transport expenses
  • Living Expenses: Lyn and Jo are able to host volunteers for HEAL Africa at Maji Matilivu, at a cost of $50/night, which covers security expenses, the cost of fuel for the generator (power is only available from 6p-10p), and meals.
    • May 2009: nine nights, $450
    • September 2009: for two nights, Lyn and Jo generously hosted us as guests of HEAL Africa
    • January 2010: three nights x 3 volunteers, $450
  • Equipment Expenses: Most of the equipment expenses entailed for this project are covered by our project partners. However, where appropriate, I have purchased or rented equipment (e.g. long distance wireless routers) to supplement project goals.
    • May 2009: Ubiquiti NS2 LocoStations and NanoStations, Lightning Protection, $150 ($200 paid by CNEC)
    • September 2009: Expenses incurred by rental of Fiber-optic terminating kit, $150
    • January 2010: Hard drives and RAM for repair of 4 computers in Internet room, $250
    • Future Expenses…
  • Total Expenses:
    • May 2009: $770
    • September 2009: $435
    • January 2010: $835

Project Timeline

August 2007:

  • Initial Site Visit, Preliminary Evaluation
  • Needs Assessment
  • Installation of Meraki Routers

September 2007:

  • Eric Nguyen’s Visit, Pilot Testing of OpenMRS in Pediatric HIV Clinic

May 2008:

  • Installation of Additional Meraki Routers
  • Copper Cabling Installed between Jubilee Center and Hospital

September 2008

  • Initial Strategy Developed for Networking the Hospital
  • Servers Delivered and Installed
  • Some routers and cabling completed within the hospital
  • Copper cabling between Jubilee Center and Hospital failed test.

Feb-March 2009:

  • Evaluation of ISPs for Installation of Broadband
  • Development of Business Plan to Support Broadband

May 2009:

  • Selection and Installation of Broadband ISP Provider
  • Installation of Local Area Network (Ubiquiti 802.11 Wireless Routers, Ethernet, Fiber-Optic)
  • IT Training

September 2009

  • Administration software for Hospital
  • Dedicated File Server for the Hospital
  • Terminating Fiber-Optic Cable

Jan 2010

  • Partnership development
  • Training, Computer Repair

2010

  • Health Information System Design, Development and Deployment
  • Solar System Design and Deployment
  • Ongoing IT Training