Research Article
A Socio-technical Perspective on the Use of Mobile Phones for Remote Data Collection in Home Community Based Care in Developing Countries
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-29093-0_13, author={Nobubele Shozi and Dalenca Pottas and Nicky Mostert-Phipps}, title={A Socio-technical Perspective on the Use of Mobile Phones for Remote Data Collection in Home Community Based Care in Developing Countries}, proceedings={e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries. Third International ICST Conference, AFRICOMM 2011, Zanzibar, Tanzania, November 23-24, 2011, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={AFRICOMM}, year={2012}, month={5}, keywords={socio-technical approach home community based care remote data collection mobile phones community health care worker}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-29093-0_13} }- Nobubele Shozi
Dalenca Pottas
Nicky Mostert-Phipps
Year: 2012
A Socio-technical Perspective on the Use of Mobile Phones for Remote Data Collection in Home Community Based Care in Developing Countries
AFRICOMM
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29093-0_13
Abstract
The adoption of technology into the health care industry has been criticized as being overtly techno-centric. It is assumed that health information technologies will fit into the environment and be easily adopted by the user. This, however, is a fallacy. Research has shown that a socio-technical approach, optimizing the interaction between the relevant social, environmental and technical sub-systems, is preferred. In this paper, a socio-technical perspective is gained on the adoption of health information technologies in the home community based care context, specifically the use of mobile phones for remote data collection. Based on data gathered through interviews with and observations of caregivers administering care in the community, this paper identifies and discusses the social, environmental and technical factors that affect community health care workers while they are using mobile phones to capture patient data in the home community based care environment in developing countries.