Abstract
The world is witnessing an alarming rate of displacement and migration, with more than 70.8 million forcibly displaced individuals, including 26 million refugees. These populations are known to have increased vulnerability and susceptibility to mental and physical health problems due to the migration journey. Access of these individuals to health services, whether during their trajectory of displacement or in refugee-hosting countries, remains limited and challenging due to multiple factors, including language and cultural barriers and unavailability of the refugees’ health records. Cloud-based electronic health records (EHRs) are considered among the top five health technologies integrated in humanitarian crisis preparedness and response during times of conflict. This viewpoint describes the design and implementation of a scalable and innovative cloud-based EHR named Sijilli, which targets refugees in low-resource settings. This paper discusses this solution compared with other similar practices, shedding light on its potential for scalability.
Highlights
Global Refugee CrisisThe number of forcibly displaced individuals, including refugees, has reached an alarming rate globally, with 70.8 million forcibly displaced individuals, including around 26 million refugees [1], of whom the majority are of Syrian nationality [2,3]
Refugees are often exposed to stressful conditions of vulnerability, poverty, poor nutrition, and marginalization prior to and during the journey of migration, a situation that increases their susceptibility of developing different health problems, including mental health problems [7,8,9]
This paper describes the design of the cloud-based mobile electronic health record electronic medical record (EMR) (EHR) system and reports on its implementation among Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Summary
The number of forcibly displaced individuals, including refugees, has reached an alarming rate globally, with 70.8 million forcibly displaced individuals, including around 26 million refugees [1], of whom the majority are of Syrian nationality [2,3]. Given that Sijilli is a cloud-based EHR, data security is of particular concern and has been considered by addressing several key points These include access to data, which is driven by role-based user access whereby once the data get into the database, only external health providers and the refugees can access patient records by providing the PIN and answering specific security questions. The design of the Sijilli data collection application used for primary creation of the Sijilli EHR for refugees was based on the input of several health providers, including physicians, nurses, community health workers, medical residents, and medical students This was done to ensure that the platform developed is user-friendly at the time of Sijilli EHR creation and time efficient in terms of data entry and collection. The platform includes the Arabic translation of instructions to accommodate non–English-speaking health providers, who are common in the Syrian-Lebanese context
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