CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Methods Inf Med 2022; 61(S 02): e64-e72
DOI: 10.1055/a-1860-8618
Original Article

Development and Testing Requirements for an Integrated Maternal and Child Health Information System in Iran: A Design Thinking Case Study

Zahra Meidani
1   Health Information Management Research Center (HIMRC), Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
2   Department of Health Information Management and Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Alireza Moravveji
3   Social Determinant of Health (SDH) Research Center, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran.
,
Shirin Gohari
2   Department of Health Information Management and Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Hamideh Ghaffarian
4   Deputy of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Sahar Zare
1   Health Information Management Research Center (HIMRC), Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
2   Department of Health Information Management and Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Fatemeh Vaseghi
5   Department of Public Health, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Gholam Abbas Moosavi
6   Department of Vital Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Ali mohammad Nickfarjam
1   Health Information Management Research Center (HIMRC), Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
2   Department of Health Information Management and Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
,
Felix Holl
7   DigiHealth Institute, Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Neu-Ulm, Germany
8   Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany
› Author Affiliations
Funding This project was financially supported by the Deputy for Research and Technology, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran (Code# IR.KAUMS.REC.1396.7; Grant Number 96007). The article processing charge (APC) was also supported by Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU), Neu-Ulm, Germany through the TBS grant.

Abstract

Background Management of child health care can be negatively affected by incomplete recording, low data quality, and lack of data integration of health management information systems to support decision making and public health program needs. Given the importance of identifying key determinants of child health via capturing and integrating accurate and high-quality information, we aim to address this gap through the development and testing requirements for an integrated child health information system.

Subjects and Methods A five-phase design thinking approach including empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping, and testing was applied. We employed observations and interviews with the health workers at the primary health care network to identify end-users' challenges and needs using tools in human-centered design and focus group discussion. Then, a potential solution to the identified problems was developed as an integrated maternal and child health information system (IMCHIS) prototype and tested using Software Quality Requirements and Evaluation Model (SQuaRE) ISO/IEC 25000.

Results IMCHIS was developed as a web-based system with 74 data elements and seven maternal and child health care requirements. The requirements of “child disease” with weight (0.26), “child nutrition” with weight (0.20), and “prenatal care” with weight (0.16) acquired the maximum weight coefficient. In the testing phase, the highest score with the weight coefficient of 0.48 and 0.73 was attributed to efficiency and functionality characteristics, focusing on software capability to fulfill the tasks that meet users' needs.

Conclusion Implementing a successful child health care system integrates both maternal and child health care information systems to track the effect of maternal conditions on child health and support managing performance and optimizing service delivery. The highest quality score of IMCHIS in efficiency and functionality characteristics confirms that it owns the capability to identify key determinants of child health.



Publication History

Received: 21 June 2021

Accepted: 24 May 2022

Accepted Manuscript online:
24 May 2022

Article published online:
19 September 2022

© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 
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