League goes high-tech

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Christchurch Press 26 February 2002 Carol Webb

As the Maori Women's Welfare League marks its half-century, its Christchurch branch is celebrating the launch of a custom-made mobile data management system it says could transform the way community healthcare providers operate.  

Christchurch companies Jymko Group and Indigo Technologies are providing Otautahi Maori Women's Welfare League child health fieldworkers with Compaq iPAQ pocket PCs running a client management application developed in Microsoft's new . NET environment, launched only last week in New Zealand.

"We're very excited about the capacity of the system to transform the way we work," said Otautahi branch president Aroha Reriti-Crofts. "It's easy to use, and it's not intrusive when our fieldworkers are with clients.

"It will let them spend more time with the whanau and help them to manage their case-load better. The great thing is that it brings together the well-child health aspect of their work, and the social side of their interaction with families."

Ms Reriti-Crofts said fieldworkers, who previously relied on handwritten records, would now have each family's case history at their fingertips, as well as appointment details. They can use portable printers to give families a record of things like child immunisation programmes and infant development.

Fieldworkers can enter data using portable keyboards, produced by a third-party developer for the iPAQ, that can be folded up into pocket size. Handwriting recognition is also available, using a stylus to write on the screen, and the iPAQ can be used as a dictaphone with voice recognition. An infra-red port allows connectionless communication with the printer.

In future, the iPAQs could act as wireless receivers connected to the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), with office staff able to send appointment details on the fly to fieldworkers.

Ms Reriti-Crofts said data is downloaded to the PC base station at the league's offices, where a part-time administrator is busy turning paper files covering the 2 & 1/2 years of the well-child programme's operation into electronic records.

"There's a lot of catching up to do, but it will be one of the most comprehensive stores of this type of information in the country."

Client confidentiality was a key issue during the system's development, said Indigo Technologies systems engineer Tim Seaward. "We had to allow for the possibility of someone losing their iPAQ, and we had to ensure the data was secure."

The pocket PCs run a mobile version of Microsoft's SQL Server with data encryption and double password protection.

Mr Seaward said he had jumped at the opportunity to use . NET for the project, although being such an early adopter meant lots of phone calls to Microsoft in the US.

.NET pioneer

"This is one of the first . NET applications to be launched in New Zealand. It's quite a buzz to be able to say that."

He said the . NET programming language C# avoided the limitations of projects written in Visual Basic, Indigo's previous language of choice. It was also easier for developers to work on individual modules in . NET, and to combine them seamlessly into the final program.

Mr Seaward said the Otautahi project had involved close contact with Ms Reriti-Crofts and the fieldworkers, to ensure the software met all their requirements and was easy to use.

"Usually programmers have little chance for contact with clients. They're kept in a back room and just fed the specs. But this is the way I like to work – it's far more satisfying."

Indigo Technologies works collaboratively with two-man company Jymko on a range of products, with Jymko partners Jonathan King and Larry Springer taking a key role in sales and marketing, and client contact.

"We do lots of things, like web development and hosting," said Jymko director Larry Springer. "But our passion is creating systems like this where we get alongside the client and develop a long-term relationship with them. We want them to keep coming back to us, and to talk about us and our products."

Ms Reriti-Crofts says she can't wait to spread the word about the new system, among Otautahi Maori Women's Welfare League members and other community health providers.

The Christchurch branch has 50 members, 35 of whom have access to Internet connections, and she would like to see them all carrying iPAQs.

Other indigenous healthcare providers worldwide would also benefit from the system.

"It's all about communications. The word will spread quickly about how good this is ... the kumara vine will do that."

Source: Christchurch Press - 26 February 2002