SmartCare

The primary aim of the SmartCare project is the continuing development of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) suitable for use in Zambia and developing nations around the world. The project takes advantage of two innovative technologies to enhance the reliability and usability of the system: a Smart Card storage medium which enables an individual patient to possess and transport their own electronic medical data; and a touch screen optimized user interface for ease of clinician adoption.

The system currently has 7 modules, Voluntary Counseling & Testing (VCT), AnteNatal Care (ANC), Delivery, Pharmacy, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), Labs and Tuberculosis (TB). The ART module is the most highly developed and as of January 2007 there are over 65,000 patients whose ART care is managed and recorded by the SmartCare system.

From a technical perspective, the current version of the system, v3.1.5, has been developed in the C# programming language on top of the .Net framework and uses Microsoft’s SQLServer Developer Engine as the underlying database.

Touch Screen
The software works well with a touch screen monitor enabling the clinician to view and record patient data. This tool, in combination with client specific data, can provide decision support for over-extended clinicians, and clinician assistants. Clinicians can ‘read and touch’ to enter data; no typing is required. See the image at top for example screen with touch screen technology enabled.

Smart Card
A patient's medical information is stored on a very secure smart card in order for the patient to be able to present the card to the clinician the next time they seek care. This data is the patient's Electronic Medical Record (EMR), and a client database is kept at facilities visited for purpose of backup and HMIS use.

Development Team
The SmartCare project is a joint effort between the Zambian Ministry of Health (ZMoH), the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric Aids Foundation, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and Dimagi.