Through an international tender process published by the Nicaraguan government, under the policies of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), IDEATI was selected for the development of the project “Development of applications to reduce maternal and infant mortality and increase productivity agriculture through the use of Broadband in Nicaragua”, within the framework of the Broadband Program coordinated by the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (TELCOR).
The project has been successfully executed from September 2019 to September 2020, and is currently in its support phase. The IDEATI work team overcame the logistical and communication obstacles that arose with the COVID-19 pandemic and the development, implementation and training activities were successfully carried out.
This project includes the development of applications for the Pilot Programs included in the Broadband Program, one oriented to the Health sector and the other to the Agricultural sector.
For the Health sector, with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) as the beneficiary institution, the Family and Community Health Model System (SIMOSAFC) was developed. This is a system created to automate the registration of basic information on the care provided to women, children and adolescents, both from the institutional and community perspective by the protagonists of the community network and health personnel. From the information collected, reports and indicators necessary to measure the performance and effectiveness of health programs and strategies are generated.
The system is based on the Primary Health Care Strategy, which consists of establishing the first level of contact between individuals, the family and the community with the national health system, through the participation of the same individuals and the community, creating self-responsibility and self-determination. In this way, health care is brought as close as possible to the place where people live and work, with community action being the first level of health care.
The objectives of the project have been achieved, which included the development of the following functionalities:
- An administrative portal to dynamically manage content, settings, access to the reporting management tool and data capture instruments
- An application in web and mobile versions (for Android and iOS) to collect data both at the institutional level (care) and at the community level. It also includes functionalities aimed at end-user interaction with MINSA.
- A reporting management tool for the generation of reports and indicators from the captured data.
- Interoperability with current MINSA systems.
As an added value, and especially considering the situation of the pandemic, IDEATI is conducting a support phase during which support will be given to putting the system into production, as well as making all the adjustments that guarantee a successful implementation.