1. Working title: 

Mobile Health Call Center Advertising

2. Type of mLearning field: 

Health

3. Project goal: 

An increased number of health workers accessing the services of The AIDS Treatment and Information Centre (ATIC); IDI’s customer health information and patient management call center.

4. Target audience: 

Health workers in the general area of HIV/AIDS, malaria, Tuberculosis and related infectious diseases.

5. What type of technology and infrastructure can be expected? 

The advertisement of the toll free line for health workers. This will be in all media forms including; newspapers, radio, websites and social media.

Health workers contact ATIC through an established toll free line and surveys done amongst trainees in IDI show fair access to mobile phones amongst the target population which needs to be taken advantage of in the crisis of finding innovative ways of eliminating the AIDs scourge in the country and global village.

6. Possible guarantees for sustainability: 

ATIC has an established toll free line which Voice over internet phone (VOIP) technology and has a stable internet connection and dedicated server for ATIC functioning. The toll free line ensures that the health worker can contact ATIC even when the health worker’s call credit is at zero.

7. Who are ALL the stakeholders that might influence the project? 

Ministry of Health, District health facilities, Private hospitals/NGOs, Media.

8. Deadline or timeline for developing the project: January, 2013- Deadline

-          Contacting media outlets- October

-          Evaluation of messages with focus group (health care workers)- October

-          Data collection- November

-           Developing media messages -December

-          Media outlets delivering messages and for what length of time - December/January

9. A broader description of the project: 

The Infectious Disease Institute (IDI)- idi-makerere.com , an affiliate of the College of Health Sciences of Makerere University, is a regional centre of excellence for prevention, treatment, research and capacity building in HIV/AIDS, TB Malaria and related infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. During the roll out of anti-retroviral therapy in 2004, IDI developed a customer call centre for health workers to call in for help/challenges they faced in the field related to the care and management of HIV/AIDS. Queries range from assistance with the patient/friends (HIV positive persons are called friends at IDI), drug administration to counseling the health workers themselves amidst their confrontations.

The call center was initially most utilised by health workers who came for training at IDI (IDI has a number of training courses) and it was noted that although comprehensive, the training did not entirely encompass their day to day life experiences once back in the field and it was also realized that most health workers faced a number of issues that needed regular in-time assistance from professional clinical experts.

Therefore, the call center would help resolve such issues at the same time help in mobile monitoring. This would be in form of a toll free warm line to maintain connectivity between IDI-ATIC and the health worker, supported by a network of local and international experts in the general area of HIV/AIDS, malaria, Tuberculosis and related infectious diseases.

Although the call center is meant to be utilized by all health care worker cadres in Uganda, uptake and utilization of the call service by the general health care worker population has been slow. While IDI training alumni have utilized the service, knowledge of the call center throughout Uganda is poor.

Yet, the expertise IDI has built in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care over the years of its service needs to be fully utilized through this toll free line. Thus, ATIC can be the bridge between the wealth of knowledge/practice that IDI has to offer and the health worker who supports the everyday Ugandan with their health. 

This can be achieved, through enhancing knowledge about this toll free line by harnessing the power of media advertisement, more health workers can get to know about the services that ATIC has to offer and learn from ATIC through simple sms and phone discussions, putting the health worker in a more knowledgeable position to deliver better quality health care to the ordinary Ugandan, not just in HIV/AIDS but also TB, malaria and other infectious diseases.

Therefore, this funding will help in advertisement of this service in all possible media outlets targeting all health workers in the country for use.

10. Which steps will you take to ensure you will reach your mLearning goal? 

Our steps since its about advertising are simple.  

We shall review the different media opportunities for advertising the programme

-          We shall contact the best outlet about the possibility of our advert and costs involved

-          We shall negotiate the possibilities of 50/50 share costs with the media outlet since the HIV issue involves everyone in addition to the 500 dollars we are lobbying from the MobiMOCC project funding (as our 50 part share)

-          We shall in the meanwhile be drafting our nice simple advert message

-          We may explore more mobile opportunities too.

11. Problems you are not sure about? 

-          If the media outlet will be willing to share costs.

-          If the message will reach all health workers, understanding that messages in newspapers and radio have different market shares

-          Drafting messaging templates that will reach health care workers

-          If rural health workers have phones or power supply

-          Website advertisement challenges