Abstract
Background: In recent years, Africa has experienced a boom in information and communication technologies (ICTs). These ICTs have been hailed by the health sector as impetus for heath service delivery in rural areas. In this regard, stakeholders in the health sector have made attempts to reinforce frontline health workers with technological tools. Although there is much evidence that ICTs play a key role in the health sector, it remains unknown how the health sector in Malawi is exploiting ICTs in its delivery of day-to-day operations.Objectives: In this study, we investigate the role that ICTs play in rural health. This study will specifically determine the purposes that health surveillance assistants (HSAs) use ICTs for, assess the ICT skills and expertise of HSAs, analyse benefits of ICTs and study the problems faced by HSAs in the effective use of ICTs.Method: In this study, a quantitative research method approach was adopted to address the research objectives. Both research sites and respondents were selected using a convenient sampling method. We self-administered and collected the questionnaire from the respondents. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data.Results: We find that HSAs have made headways in the adoption of various forms of ICTs such as mobile phones alongside their applications (Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp). However, efforts to maximise the appropriation of ICTs by HSAs are punctuated by various hindrances including high cost of ICT gadgets, high cost of Internet bundles, inadequate training in ICTs and lack of support from senior management in the Ministry of Health.Conclusion: Use of ICTs in community health is slowly but surely possible. In a nutshell, the study has shown that, regardless of perceivable hindrances associated with use of ICTs, HSAs use some ICTs in their work and personal activities. It is evident that using mobile phones to improve performance is an important area and that there is little interest in evaluating such interventions.
Highlights
There is more interest in the research community regarding how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to stimulate development
Apart from demographic information, we present and discuss the findings according to the themes underpinning this study as follows: ICT skills and expertise, purpose health surveillance assistants (HSAs) use ICTs for, problems HSAs face when using ICTs and benefits of using ICTs
Despite Jimoh et al (2012) report that the mobile sector has satisfactorily flourished in most part of subSaharan Africa, our study shows that use of some ICTs such as Twitter amongst HSAs is still low in Malawi
Summary
There is more interest in the research community regarding how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to stimulate development. The health care condition is very poor, and it is a challenging issue mostly in providing health care services to people living in rural and remote areas (Shekar & Otto 2014). Information and communication technologies have a growing influence on all areas of human life and the health care sector is not spared (Nair 2014). Africa has experienced a boom in information and communication technologies (ICTs) These ICTs have been hailed by the health sector as impetus for heath service delivery in rural areas. In this regard, stakeholders in the health sector have made attempts to reinforce frontline health workers with technological tools. There is much evidence that ICTs play a key role in the health sector, it remains unknown how the health sector in Malawi is exploiting ICTs in its delivery of day-to-day operations
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