Nomusa Dlodlo

Towards a Framework to Enable Semantic Interoperability of Data in Heterogeneous Health Information Systems in Namibian Public Hospitals

The District Health Information System (DHIS) is an information system that is hosted in the Khomas regional office of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) in Namibia. Parallel to the DHIS, the MoHSS runs silo information systems in the 14 regions of Namibia which were donated by non-governmental organisations in addition to a regional DHIS. The DHIS and silo systems currently work in isolation from one another, hence this study is on finding a framework to enable semantic interoperability of data in these heterogeneous health information systems (HIS) so that the DHIS and these silo systems in the Namibian public hospitals can act as an integrated platform to share and exchange health- related information with each other. Thus, a protocol called Interlink protocol is developed in this research to enable integration. The DHIS and silo- interfaced system that will be developed in this research should be able to link or connect all the public hospitals in Namibia to the central database at the MoHSS for health information feed. The system would allow public hospitals to interlink with each other through a technology integrated platform. The study therefore seeks to interface DHIS and silo systems at a data level. The aim of this research therefore is to design and develop a framework for data semantic interoperability of DHIS and these other health information silo systems so that they can exchange health data and information.

Enabling Semantic Interoperability of Disease Surveillance Data in Health Information Exchange Systems for Community Health Workers

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) advocates for the integration of distributed and heterogeneous health information systems. This is achieved through the development of standards that specify protocols through which the integrated systems can communicate as profiles. In Namibia, healthcare services are extended to communities through community health workers (CHW). Most CHW are sent to the field to educate and raise awareness of diseases in the communities. However, there is no platform for them to communicate the disease surveillance information to the regional and Head offices in real-time. The IHE, through its Information Technology Infrastructure Technical Framework Volume 2b Transaction B provides a Cross-Gateway Patient Discovery (XCPD) profile that can support the means to locate communities which hold patient-relevant health data as well as the translation of patient identifiers across communities that hold similar patient data. The XCPD profile can be adapted to support communication between the CHW, the DHIS-2 in the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) and silo HIS in the regional hospitals, for them to share and also to exchange information within a health information exchange ecosystem. At the present moment, the DHIS-2 and the silo health information systems work in isolation simply because these HIS are heterogeneous, they are not interfaced and also not distributed. The study sought to develop a framework to enable the semantic interoperability of the DHIS-2, silo systems and CHWs for data semantic interoperability so that they can exchange disease-surveillance information.

Selecting Attributes for Inclusion in an Educational Recommender System Using the Multi-attribute Utility Theory

In linear e-Learning management systems, also referred to as Learning Management Systems (LMS), content is presented to the learners in the same way irrespective of their different learning styles, educational, social and historical background, their interests and learning abilities. In education recommender-based adaptive systems, learning is personalized and differentiated, taking into consideration the students’ different attributes. Adaptivity is automatic adjustment of the content provided to learners to suit their individual attributes. Personalisation is the ability to provide content and services that are tailored to individuals based on knowledge about their preferences and behavior. This research applies pedagogical foundations of teaching and learning in identifying learner attributes to go into an educational recommender-based adaptive system. Through a literature review, 40 attributes of personalized/differentiated learning were identified. A user-centric approach was adopted to prioritise the attributes in order to identify the 10 top attributes. This was done by using the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT). The 40 attributes of personalised learning initially fed into questionnaires for students. From a population of 1203 students from a higher education college called EDU-REC, for the purpose of this research and to preserve anonymity of the college, a sample of 200 students was purposively selected for the research on the basis of their familiarity with the college’s eLearning system, and 103 students responded to the questionnaire representing a response rate of 52%. From the responses of the students, the following top ten (10) attributes were identified for inclusion in an educational recommender platform: culture, emotional/mental state, socialisation, motivation, learning preferences, prior knowledge, educational background, learning/cognitive style, and navigation and learning goals.

Towards a Framework for the Adoption of Mobile Information Communication Technology Dynamic Capabilities for Namibian Small and Medium Enterprises

A company’s ability to be mobile is the capability to transact anytime, anywhere, Mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) ability to transform businesses is attributed to the dynamic capabilities (DCs) of ICT. In response to changing technologies and as a means to gain profits, organizations use DC, which is a catalyst of the business ability to design and adjust resources. As such DCs effect is also felt on resource base affording the organization competitive advantage. In this qualitative Namibian case study, the DCs of mobile ICT were closely analyzed as a means to investigate the usage of DCs of mobile ICT by Namibian Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), and how it can enhance SME transformation and strategies used for its adoption. The analysis of this study was conducted using the Theory of Dynamic Capabilities. For this study 40 SMEs were identified by means of convenience sampling and one employee per SME by means of purposive sampling. The collection of data was primarily through interviews and questionnaires subsequently the data was coded. The results showed that although some SMEs in Namibia use technology, there is still a significant number that is oblivious to the advantages that DCs of mobile ICT can offer. The researcher therefore recommends that governing bodies of Namibian SMEs enforce policies that facilitate the adoption of mobile ICT and sponsor local SMEs as conduit for economic advancement; that owners of SMEs adopt mobile ICT as a means to gain competitive advantage; that SMEs with existing mobile ICT infrastructure should look into ways of adopting diverse DCs of mobile ICT thus creating a better environment for faster service delivery; that SMEs should adopt the culture of ICT training to enable employees to effectively use mobile ICT; that in order to reduce software costs SMEs should opt for open source applications; and that as means to gain visibility and increase customer base SMEs should make use of mobile technology to market their services and products.

Mobile technology for health information dissemination

Currently Namibia disseminates health information to the communities manually through health extension workers from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) travelling to the communities for health campaigns, distribution of pamphlets and roadshows. Dissemination is also through community radio stations and the television. Taking into consideration that Namibia is a vast and sparsely populated country, this manual system of dissemination is not efficient and effective. The use of mobile devices has become a significant part of our everyday lives. This study is centred on the development of a prototype mobile application for health information sharing and dissemination, by taking advantage of the fact that Namibia currently has a cell phone ownership rate of 110%. The study employed a qualitative approach as the first phase of the research, applying an interpretive and a qualitative multi-case study research design. Semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, questionnaires and document sampling were used as data collection methods to identify the system requirements for the prototype mobile application. Health personnel, IT experts, and health policy makers from two Windhoek hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the CDC and members of the community were participants in this research study. SPSS was used to analyse the quantitative aspects of the data, while the qualitative data was reduced, rearranged and integrated to come up with a theory. The information collected focused on the distribution of cell phone ownership, current channels of health information access, prevalence of diseases, literacy levels and frequency of visits to health facilities in the sample as a reflection of the general populace. Through laboratory experimentation, the second phase of the study led to the development of a prototype mobile application. The mobile application content covers the common diseases in Namibia, their definition, the causes of the diseases, the symptoms of the diseases, how to prevent the diseases and whom to contact for information on the diseases. An expert review of the developed prototype was undertaken. The evaluations were in the areas of usability, efficiency, user satisfaction, accessibility, speed and adaptability and set the direction for future work.

An adaptive recommender-system based framework for personalised teaching and learning on e-learning platforms

Current learning management systems such as Moodle and WebCT are considered as linear systems that provide e-learning material in a fixed-sequence, delivering the same content to learners regardless of their differences in background knowledge. For learners engaged in self-study online distance learning, this may result in material being presented at either too high or too low cognitive levels. According to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory, this may result in either frustration or boredom among learners. This paper proposes a recommender-system-based adaptive e-learning framework for personalised teaching on e-learning platforms. The framework would assist designers, teachers and learners to identify issues they need to consider in order to address challenges of poor engagement in online distance settings, arising from a “one-size-fits-all” approach that does not recognise the role of individual differences in teaching and learning. Secondly, the framework may enable the identification of problems or obstacles that may be encountered when supporting learners in their quest to reduce frustration and boredom when using a Recommender-Based Pedagogical System (RBPS). A literature review was conducted on adaptive e-learning systems based on the ZPD theory, learner modelling, the Generic Adaptive Framework and a recommendation system model. 70 articles were selected from a database of 720 articles published between 2010 and 2017 to come up with the dimensions needed to develop such a model for the framework through deductive analysis. The research found out that the majority of the studies only consider three dimensions to an adaptive framework, that is, the learner model, the content model and the adaptation engine while the Generic Adaptation Framework proposes seven dimensions. In addition, the majority of the studies are based on the principles of macro-adaptation which provide a “static” snapshot of a learners profile instead of dynamically adjusting the adaptation as learner variables. In the proposed adaptive framework, we identified five dimensions, including real-time dynamic adaptation and context modelling in addition to the learner model, the domain model and the pedagogical strategy.

The Use of Mobile Devices for Collaborative Learning in High Schools: is it Possible in Namibia?

This study aimed at investigating if the use of mobile devices for collaborative learning in High Schools of Namibia is possible. The population of the study was made up of learners from six out of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Three schools from each region were selected and a total of seven hundred and twenty (720) learners (forty (40) learners from each school) were randomly selected. A mixed method approach which involved the use of survey questions and interviews was employed and data collected was analyzed using the SPSS. The findings among others revealed that the majority of learners in Namibian high schools are mobile ICT literate. Many of the learners can access the internet, download education materials and applications from the internet using mobile devices, access social networking sites, conduct searches for material, send emails, read assignments and post comments on blogs. Finally recommendations were made based on results found.

A mobile application for health information dissemination: A Namibian context

Mobile devices have become the most powerful tool to disseminate information across communities in todays world. The current method of disseminating health-related information to the communities in Namibia is a manual system which is not efficient and effective. This study sought to identify an efficient and effective way to disseminate health information. The first phase of the study was qualitative, applying an interpretive approach and a qualitative multi-case study research design. Two hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and members of the community participated in this study. Face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews, questionnaires and document sampling were used as data collection methods to identify the requirements for a mobile application. Through laboratory experimentation, the second phase of the study led to the development of a prototype mobile application that will enable anyone to install the application on their phones in order to access general diseases information from the CDC. The first phase of the research concluded that a large number of Namibians own cellphones hence a mobile application would suffice. The most prevalent diseases from the research are malaria, diabetes, cancer and HIV, hence the initial application should concentrate on information dissemination for such. The mobile application content covers the common diseases in Namibia, their definition, the causes of the disease, the symptoms of the disease, how to prevent the disease and whom to contact. In the research conducted, the majority of the population is literate hence the application can support text-based information in addition to graphics. The research also found that a large number of people visit clinics and hospitals hence the mobile application will benefit both even those who visit clinics and hospitals as well provided they have smartphone.