A Low Cost PC-Based System for Clinical Information Management in Infant Neurodevelopment Services of Santiago de Cuba Province

Abstract

Childhood Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) collectively represent a great challenge for health systems internationally, with a significant economic and social impact. Despite the existence of digital devices in Cuban hospitals, the clinical records of patients are still written in hard format and stored in unfavourable conditions. Moreover the international market for Electronic Hospital Records systems (EHR’s) presents a wide variety of products but in addition to being expensive, they only prioritize clinical service. The main objective of this paper is to develop a low cost Web-based system oriented for research that automates the information management of the Services for Infant Neurodevelopment & Disability (SPNID) in Santiago de Cuba. The system was developed using open source tools and technologies, and the Extreme Programming as software development methodology. The ECR that responds to the services provided in the SPNID was developed in Visual Studio Code v1.39.2. The software has been implemented in the JavaScript programming language, using open source frameworks. Moreover a dedicated wireless network was designed for remote access of SPNID staff using mobile devices. The system was successfully evaluated in real conditions on the Intranet of the Southern Infant Hospital (HIS) by the SPNID specialists. Moreover a way of how to make the biomedical research about NDD closer to hospital was tackled by authors. The use of open source and the efficient use of low-cost solutions in the implemented system have proven to be viable alternatives for the improvement of health system in low-income countries like Cuba.