Crossing the Line to Electronic Medical Records in Subsaharian Africa: An Obstetric and Neonatal Information System with Perinatal Indicators Dashboard

Abstract

Objectives: This study reports our experience in the use of a perinatal electronic medical record, E_Perinatal, by giving examples of its potential for the analysis of clinical data and the involvement of the indicators produced in the improvement of Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care in Africa. Methodology: This is a study that was conducted in the scenario of a Level II Health Centre in Senegal. The methodology of the study followed the following steps: an inventory of the use of electronic tools in labour wards in Senegal, an exploratory survey of the scenario of obstetric and neonatal care, simultaneous elaboration of an electronic medical record in obstetrics and neonatology and selection of obstetric and neonatal care indicators to automatically generated and implement the information system. The recording was retrospective and continuous from January 2015 to December 2016. Results: This database automates the storage of obstetric data, including antenatal care, obstetric ultrasound, hospital admissions, prescribing, etc., providing easy access to patient data from anywhere in the hospital, produce timely reports and graphs to refer to clinician correspondents, store and electronically transfer birth data to authorities, and store data for ad hoc queries and search statistics. Conclusion: E_Perinatal has demonstrated in a scenario of an intermediate health facility its usefulness and ease of use. Scaling up in a developing country will help to better understand the real problems and help to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.