The goal of this study is to pilot test the feasibility of a mobile health clinical decision support tool called ALRITE for the diagnosis and management of acute lower respiratory illnesses in young children in Uganda. Asthma/wheezing illness, in particular, is underdiagnosed in this setting. The main questions the study aims to answer are: * Are the intervention structure, processes, outcomes, and implementations strategies feasible to conduct in the desired settings? * Does ALRITE increase the diagnosis of wheezing illness among children seen at Ugandan health centers? Researchers will compare outcomes before and after ALRITE deployment to healthcare workers at 4 Ugandan healthcare centers using an interrupted time series design. Study participants are healthcare workers. There will be12 months of baseline data collection ("baseline period"), at the beginning of which healthcare workers will be enrolled at each site. Following the baseline period, health workers will receive ALRITE training and will be encouraged but not required to use ALRITE in clinical care for a 6-month intervention period. Health worker participants will fill out surveys and participate in focus group discussions to provide feedback.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
48
ALRITE is a point-of-care mobile health clinical decision support tool designed for use by healthcare workers in Uganda. ALRITE guides the user into entering patient information and provides guideline-concordant recommendations. ALRITE also includes educational videos and weight-based dosing.
Makerere University Lung Institute
Kampala, Uganda
Healthcare worker enrollment (study feasibility)
Number of healthcare workers enrolled during the baseline phase and additional healthcare workers who were enrolled during the remaining study period (ex: new hires or transfers)
Time frame: At enrollment
Healthcare worker retention (study feasibility)
Proportion of healthcare workers active in the study over total number enrolled
Time frame: From enrollment through study completion, an average of 20 months
Availability of ALRITE-enabled devices (study feasibility)
Proportion of functional devices over number of devices provided to the facility per month
Time frame: Monthly during the intervention period from ALRITE deployment through study completion, an average of 6 months
ALRITE training completion (study feasibility)
Number of ALRITE training sessions completed per site
Time frame: During ALRITE deployment at the end of the baseline period, estimated 1-2 months
Data completeness (study feasibility)
Percentage of eligible pediatric cases correctly abstracted from the health facility records into the electronic database.
Time frame: Monthly from baseline (day 1) through the study completion, estimated 20 months
Diagnosis rate of wheezing illness
Diagnosis rates of wheezing illness/asthma among all young children presenting to study sites, as recorded in the health record
Time frame: Monthly from baseline through study completion, estimated 20 months
Diagnosis rate of pneumonia
Diagnosis rates of pneumonia among all young children presenting to study sites, as recorded in the health record
Time frame: Monthly from baseline through study completion, estimated 20 months
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