As our summer project in Kisumu drew to a close on July 20, the SRT team reflected on a productive and enlightening experience. Initially focused on the mSaada app, we soon discovered a handful of ongoing projects that broadened the scope of our time in Kisumu.
mSaada is a digital platform designed to aid community health promoters (CHPs) in cervical cancer prevention efforts. Features of the app include patient education, screening reminders, and screening result notifications just to name a few.
Beyond mSaada, we contributed to several other initiatives. The U54 project, centered on HPV vaccination and screening, saw us designing promotional materials for health fairs offering free services. We also participated in the Elimisha project, which explored community perceptions of HPV, HIV, and cervical cancer stigma. Our involvement in survey administration was limited due to language barriers, as we lacked proficiency in Swahili and Luo.
A personal and team highlight was developing tools to streamline our colleagues’ workflows, allowing them to focus on applying their expertise more effectively. If you were to ask me, our most significant achievement was gaining some proficiency in Excel Macros, which enabled us to automate data processing from the mSaada app (a bit biased since this was my focus). This innovation reduced the time required to generate weekly progress reports from 4-6 hours to under 10 minutes. Other meaningful achievements include developing a more hands-on, inquiry-based education module for teaching CHPs to use mSaada as well as creating editable posters and fliers for health fairs.
This experience highlighted the complex and often unpredictable nature of community-centered work, emphasizing the need to prioritize effectiveness over efficiency. Take, for example, the protocol for patient education, led by CHPs. Multiple revisions were necessary to address concerns about material interpretation and length, each requiring corresponding app modifications that took time. While such frequent changes might frustrate developers working remotely on a global scale, our proximity to Kisumu facilitated ongoing dialogues with the research team, CHPs, and local clinics. These discussions are crucial in transforming a broad app into a truly community-centered tool.
While technology has the potential to aggravate health disparities, when properly integrated into community settings, it can minimize healthcare gaps. I’m eager to observe how mSaada influences cervical cancer screening rates in the future.
“While technology has the potential to aggravate health disparities, when properly integrated into community settings, it can minimize healthcare gaps.”
