Macha Mission Hospital

Dear Gertjan, the Macha Community, and ‘Linknet’,

After about a year’s discussion and reflection, the development team and initial partners appear to have reached a consensus on a new name: the SmartCare system, for the portable EMR system formerly known as CCPTS (Continuity of Care and Patient Tracking System).  

In the next month or so you should see a web site at SmartCareSystem and/or OpenSmartCare…

(A prize to Chanda Mubanga-Chipoya, software developer in the Ministry of Health IT department, who first championed the winning name, SmartCare!)

History:

Both the CCPTS project and its overly forgettable acronym were a merger about 14 months ago, of two early electronic systems:

a) the initial smart card EMR for which CDC Informatics leadership supported seed funding in Jan 2004, and which became by September 2004 the Continuity of Care Project - CDC’s smart card & touch screen EMR technology, and

b) the Patient Tracking System - UAB’s ART clinical protocol system, the first computerized ART system in , from April 2004, which was also receiving support from CDC. 

It is a descendent of national standards, consenses involving many implementers in , other public health work in , , , WHO, and elsewhere in developed countries.

Present:

The CDC provides leadership for the technology and closely collaborates with the MOH, the authorizing agency, and UAB/CIDRZ key early partner, ZPCT (USAID), CRS/AIDSRelief, JHPIEGO, HSSP (USAID), EGPAF, CHAZ, new partner LinkNet, and other implementing partners on the ground for the clinical experience which inform the system. In-country software development team is currently a joint effort including MOH, CDC, UAB/CIDRZ, EGPAF, JHPIEGO staff.

Future:

Version 3.2 of CCPTS to be released widely in Zambia in a couple weeks will use the SmartCare system name, but will still carry the Continuity of Care and Patient Tracking System byline, (for the continuity, since we are sensitive to that).  We are keen to get to version 4.0 in perhaps the second quarter 2007 (completing migration to a re-engineered infrastructure), as the version that we would like to put into the ‘open’ workspace of the internet.  We want to see that the work here will be useful elsewhere.

About the name:

We hope SmartCare is a name that will serve its purpose, and well.  We would hope it communicates the primary focus on evidence based care even as it also provides infrastructure for an enhanced national HMIS system. It might also underscore the importance of point of service information, and the idea of the ‘protocolized care’ that is effective in our developing context.  It might suggest the future project directions of increasingly enhanced decision support as implementations move from paper-first, to electronic-fast, and even to electronic-first in selected venues.  The name provides a soft link with the easily remembered smart card technology (an optional feature of the SmartCare system) and the “Care Card” now being deployed in . 

Lastly, it might convey the synergy of intellect & heart that sustains this mission.

Best regards,

Mark Shields

(for the SmartCare development team)