Digitizing Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Childhood Illness in Primary Care in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

In order to improve the quality of care and optimize medical prescriptions to treat children’s acute illnesses in LMICs, several humanitarian and development organisations and scientific institutions have developed electronic versions of the clinical pathway prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).

The creation of these digital tools – taking into account contextualised users’ experience – led to modifications of the clinical pathway content and generated critical learning for further efforts to promote and harmonise the digitisation of clinical guidelines.

These innovative digitalisation processes not only conform to the WHO’s resolution on digital health and the introduction of the Principles of Donor Alignment for Digital Health; but are also in line with global efforts to improve the harmonisation of e-health services and enhance the coordination of global health actors in this arena.

The GSPI, in partnership with the Geneva Health Forum, has initiated a working group gathering scientists, NGOs, policy and field actors. Representatives of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Terre des Hommes (TDH), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (STPH), FIND, and the Ifakara Health Institute have been meeting since October 2019 with the aim to conduct a comparative assessment of the electronic clinical decision support systems (eCDSS) tools they have developed.

The group has been working on drawing recommendations to harmonise the digitalisation, adaptation and iterative improvement of the IMCI.‍

The results will be discussed in a closed-door meeting with relevant stakeholders in order to identify potential ways forward to structure a platform for further collaboration in this area. The outcomes of this process will published in a White Paper and presented publicly during the Geneva Health Forum, to be held on 16-18 November 2020.

Interested stakeholders are invited to join this process.For more information, please contact Frédérique Guérin at frederique.guerin@unige.ch