Regional Programme

OpenMRS Cameroon

Project Time Frame:

November 2018 - September 2020

Summary

The Ministry of Health in Cameroon has adopted and utilizes electronic health information systems (HIS) to improve both clinical and programmatic data, one of the foundational components for a robust and high quality clinical data ecosystem is the electronic medical record (EMR). As such, the EMR must be continuously reviewed and adapted to meet the real world needs of the users and patients it serves. Jembi provides the technical expertise and development to support the Cameroon Ministry of Health’s EMR vision.

Project Goals

01

Develop an EMR to deliver point of care patient level tracking for HIV care and treatment. Provide a stable platform and infrastructure to support additional clinical services and interoperability with other systems in the HIS ecosystem of Cameroon’s context, in all the levels including: health facility, district, provincial and national

02

Develop PEPFAR and Cameroon Ministry of Health programmatic reports directly from the EMR application for the monitoring and evaluation of the HIV program

03

Capacity building so that the local technical teams can lead the electronic medical record (EMR) product development, implementation and support

The Ministry of Health in Cameroon is pioneering the development and implementation of a Bahmni driven point of care solution, with support from CDC Cameroon, the National AIDS Control Committee of Cameroon (NACC) and technical support from Jembi as well as site level implementation work carried out by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Jembi is leading the EMR (Bahmni) product development while in parallel, training and mentoring NACC and local partners with the goal of transitioning the responsibility of product development and maintenance to them.

The Cameroon MoH is committed to building a user requirements based EMR solution that can be rolled out and supported nationally. Jembi is following an iterative software delivery process of user requirements analysis and sign off, development, quality assurance and user acceptance testing of the Bahmni solution.

Bahmni is an easy to use, open-source EMR and Hospital Management System for healthcare providers in low-resource settings. Its goal is to provide a configurable solution for hospitals, small clinics and large clinics. The initial phase includes the development of the HIV clinical and reporting module but the application is configured to include patient registration for all services, as well as cross service clinical dashboards, appointment scheduling, vitals signs, diagnosis, laboratory ordering and prescribing. The EMR is integrated to the OpenELIS laboratory solution for real time result reporting. Future phases will include the implementation of billing and stock management.

Jembi works collaboratively with the consortium providing project management tools, system training, technical training, implementation planning and implementation support in order to assure the success of the Cameroon HIV program, accuracy of data for MoH and PEPFAR reporting and improved patient outcomes.

In addition, Jembi supports the Cameroon MoH in developing the EMR strategy, the future system development roadmap and implementation plan in order to assure continued funding and sustainability of the Cameroon national EMR.