Material agency themes, descriptions and illustrative data extracts
| Theme | Description | Illustrative data extracts |
|---|---|---|
| Mobility of mHealth-enabled smartphones | The wireless nature of smartphones means they can extend digital systems into remote areas with minimal digital infrastructure | “You find out that many areas in the rural communities are not covered and can only be covered by this type of mobile technology” (Facilitator 4) |
| “… with this app any person even the village volunteer health workers in the village, the patent medicine vendors, they can use it to save lives.” (RHCW3) | ||
| Web connectivity of mHealth-enabled smartphones | The ability to connect to the Internet creates access to a range of health-related and unrelated online content | “… since this gives them access to the Internet, they can equally use that to look for diagnosis or treatment being offered through the net … especially with the shortage of doctors in the rural areas” (Facilitator 1) |
| “Apart from the app itself they can use the phone to browse for things that will help them do their work” (Facilitator 2) | ||
| Rigid existing paper-based diagnostic guidelines that are integrated into the mHealth app | The treatment steps of health guidelines built into the app are considered cumbersome. Strict adherence is required, often resulting in a referral | “we need something that will help us in treating our patients instead of the many referrals that are recommended in the present SOP” (RHCW4) |
| “most of the steps in SOP is always refer, refer, even simple things we can treat they direct us to refer” (RHCW7) | ||
| “Observed 1) there were limited copies of SOP booklets available, causing frustration among workers and 2) Booklets are large, fairly heavy and maybe not ideal in terms of carry around” (Notes/Obs.) | ||
| Insufficient practical utilities in rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The supply of drugs and utilities, such as water and electricity limit healthcare workers to basic interactions with patients | “Facilities in the villages are poor” (Developer 5); “we do not have the required drugs for treatment here” (RHCW1) |
| “Ill equipped facilities” (Notes/Photo) | ||
| “Observed ill-equipped facilities, including little or no regular clean water (most health facilities rely heavily on rain water collected in tanks (Plate 7))” (Notes/Obs) | ||
| Insufficient security apparatus at rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The rural healthcare centres do not have physical security personnel to protect RHCWs from threat (e.g. night marauders and detractors) | “There are many things we do not have … we do not have security in our place of work” (RHCW5) |
| “The major thing is security, no security in the villages. No security in any of the health centres, even on the road to move around especially in the night when you can have emergencies” (Facilitator 6) | ||
| Insufficient roads for transportation to and from rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The roads used by PGs and RHCWs to access health centres are often too poor to travel | “Roads are filled with gullies in the rural communities” (RHCW3) |
| “… most roads are inaccessible” (Developer 5) | ||
| “motorcycles (Okada) or Tricycles (Keke) are being used in the rural areas, with the exception of private individuals with their personal cars” (PG5) | ||
| Observed 1) Roads not surfaced and poorly maintained (Plate 9) and 2) Can damage vehicles” (Notes/Obs.) |
| Theme | Description | Illustrative data extracts |
|---|---|---|
| Mobility of mHealth-enabled smartphones | The wireless nature of smartphones means they can extend digital systems into remote areas with minimal digital infrastructure | “You find out that many areas in the rural communities are not covered and can only be covered by this type of mobile technology” (Facilitator 4) |
| “… with this app any person even the village volunteer health workers in the village, the patent medicine vendors, they can use it to save lives.” (RHCW3) | ||
| Web connectivity of mHealth-enabled smartphones | The ability to connect to the Internet creates access to a range of health-related and unrelated online content | “… since this gives them access to the Internet, they can equally use that to look for diagnosis or treatment being offered through the net … especially with the shortage of doctors in the rural areas” (Facilitator 1) |
| “Apart from the app itself they can use the phone to browse for things that will help them do their work” (Facilitator 2) | ||
| Rigid existing paper-based diagnostic guidelines that are integrated into the mHealth app | The treatment steps of health guidelines built into the app are considered cumbersome. Strict adherence is required, often resulting in a referral | “we need something that will help us in treating our patients instead of the many referrals that are recommended in the present SOP” (RHCW4) |
| “most of the steps in SOP is always refer, refer, even simple things we can treat they direct us to refer” (RHCW7) | ||
| “Observed 1) there were limited copies of SOP booklets available, causing frustration among workers and 2) Booklets are large, fairly heavy and maybe not ideal in terms of carry around” (Notes/Obs.) | ||
| Insufficient practical utilities in rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The supply of drugs and utilities, such as water and electricity limit healthcare workers to basic interactions with patients | “Facilities in the villages are poor” (Developer 5); “we do not have the required drugs for treatment here” (RHCW1) |
| “Ill equipped facilities” (Notes/Photo) | ||
| “Observed ill-equipped facilities, including little or no regular clean water (most health facilities rely heavily on rain water collected in tanks ( | ||
| Insufficient security apparatus at rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The rural healthcare centres do not have physical security personnel to protect RHCWs from threat (e.g. night marauders and detractors) | “There are many things we do not have … we do not have security in our place of work” (RHCW5) |
| “The major thing is security, no security in the villages. No security in any of the health centres, even on the road to move around especially in the night when you can have emergencies” (Facilitator 6) | ||
| Insufficient roads for transportation to and from rural healthcare centres in which the mHealth app is used | The roads used by PGs and RHCWs to access health centres are often too poor to travel | “Roads are filled with gullies in the rural communities” (RHCW3) |
| “… most roads are inaccessible” (Developer 5) | ||
| “motorcycles (Okada) or Tricycles (Keke) are being used in the rural areas, with the exception of private individuals with their personal cars” (PG5) | ||
| Observed 1) Roads not surfaced and poorly maintained ( |
Sharing content requires targeting cookies to be enabled. Please update your cookie preferences to use this feature.