Nina Gerlach

The World Health Organization has commissioned a scoping review in order to better understand efforts that have been undertaken for the digitalization of home-based records for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and what lessons can be learned moving forward. A background paper will be developed that identifies and summarizes peer-reviewed and grey literature related to digitalization of home-based records for MNCH. The scoping review protocol can be found here:https://www.protocols.io/view/digitalization-of-home-based-records-for-maternal-bwi7pchn.

For the purpose of this review, the digitalization of a home-based record is understood as an individual or caregiver having digital access to their health record or alternatively hold a digital copy of the record at home, such as in the form of a smart card or near-field communication (NFC) token, even if they can’t directly access the data on it themselves. The digital home-based record may also include health education messages.

If you are aware of any literature, including academic articles, white papers, (project) reports, etc., covering initiatives related to the digitalization of home-based records in the area of MNCH, please share the electronic file with us at the following email address:[email protected]. We are looking for materials that are published after 2010.

We will be collecting materials until 3 August 2021.

Thank you for your collaboration.

The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are collaborating to strengthen implementation of home-based records. An implementation guide to support countries in reviewing their home-based records is under development; Fuse ForeSight will be supporting the development process.

As part of this effort, we are seeking policy-makers and programme managers who would like to contribute to the development of simple decision-making tools that would allow country actors to assess the current content of their home-based record as well as operational support by reflecting on some simple questions such as:

• Why have we included this information in the home-based record?
• Who uses this information (women or family member, health provider, health programme data)?
• What is the cost of including the information in the home-based record?
• How is the design of a home-based record coordinated at country level? etc.

We are looking for policy-makers/programme managers of countries:

Your input will involve providing feedback during short zoom calls that we are planning over the next 6 months. 

If you are interested in participating, or if you have any questions, please contact Rich Radka ([email protected]).

Many thanks in advance for your contributions!

WHO, UNICEF and JICA are collaborating to develop practical guidance to strengthen implementation of home-based records.  As part of this effort, we are collecting existing tools that support home-based records implementation.  We are looking for the most recent version of formal documents and tools which:

• focus on the improvement of home-based records implementation (handbooks, training guides, checklists, etc.).
• focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, including vaccines, nutrition, growth and development and early child development.
• are published after 2010 (or if still in use, we will accept published before 2010).
• in any language. (However, we would prefer an English version if available.)

Please send (in electronic format) any tools that you have developed or know of to [email protected].  If you prefer, we can send you a link where you can upload the document rather than sending by email; please write (to the email address that is mentioned above) and let us know. If the tool meets our inclusion criteria, we will contact you to ask for any reports regarding the evaluation of the tool and/or lessons learned in using the tool. 

We will be collecting tools until 20 August 2020.

Many thanks for your collaboration!