Q2 2021 Report
introduction
Q2 2021 presented Medic with the opportunity to lean into our steadfast values of solidarity and openness.
We continued to work alongside the health workers and health systems we support, remaining open and trusting in the process of creating and deploying scalable, digital tools that facilitate quality, equitable care in the world’s hardest-to-reach communities.
In Q2, we saw pre-pandemic-level rebounds in our key metrics – a testament to the dedication and community leadership of health workers despite COVID-19’s relentless disruption to primary care. We collaborated on future-focused guidance on pandemic preparedness, launched an annual report, sought feedback and improved processes for end users, celebrated our incredible funders, and so much more.
Below, we explore the impact and successes of our open-source community and dedicated team over the last quarter, driven by our enduring commitment to support health workers as they deliver care when it’s needed most.
our impact
Quarter-over-quarter increases in household coverage, facility based deliveries, and iCCM speed.
In Q2 2021, we saw significant increases in the delivery of essential health services with continuity of care supported by digital tools highlighted across these users. CHWs engaged in 5.6 million caring activities, bringing the total number of caring activities supported by the platform up to 57.8 million for all-time.
This quarter, we added 1,933 new users to the Community Health Toolkit (CHT), with a total of 37,814 users across health systems in the 15 countries actively using the CHT to support care in their communities.
37,814
Total CHT users
1,933
New CHT users
57.8M
All-time caring activities supported
5.6M
Caring activities this quarter
We’re thrilled to share that our team has observed quarter-over-quarter increases in key metrics for essential health services in Q2 2021. Specifically, we saw significant increases in household coverage, facility-based deliveries, and speed of iCCM care for children under-five.
More than 35% of households registered for care with the CHT received one or more visits from a community health worker (CHW) per month within the quarter – the highest quarterly household coverage average reported since we began tracking this metric.
METRIC SPOTLIGHT
Scaling our Partnership in Nepal
Medic is proud to celebrate our partnership with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in Nepal, which has grown to more than 10,500 users with an additional 647 Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) on-boarded in Q2. This represents 28% of all CHT users!
83,723
Pregnancies registered
93.6
% of deliveries in a facility
1.1M
Under-5 assessments
89
% of under-5 assessments conducted within 72 hours
The speed of care for children under-five has increased to pre-pandemic levels in Q2 2021, with 89% of children receiving care within 72 hours of symptom onset, saving lives and enabling quality care in time to address key drivers of under-five mortality.
Our impact reporting for this quarter highlights how digitally-supported CHWs are able to provide much needed care to their communities, while still in the midst of a global pandemic.
product highlights
New release of the CHT Core Framework: 3.12.0
The latest release of the CHT marks a significant Q2 effort. It includes improvements to user telemetry to gather more data points and also to replicate the data to the server more frequently. In addition, the monitoring API has been extended to include information about user connection rates and SMS messaging errors so administrators can be notified of issues in the system. 3.12 also includes many other improvements beneath the hood to improve performance and make it easier to build on the CHT.
PRODUCT EXPERIMENTS
F-Droid. The product team is exploring new ways to install and update Android apps to make it easier to deploy in remote settings.
Architecture v3. We’re investigating how to improve performance so one server can scale to support more users.
NEW DOCUMENTATION
OpenMRS integration. This page includes guidance on how to exchange patient-level data and integrate CHT apps with OpenMRS.
Android Wrapper tutorial. This tutorial explains how to build a custom CHT Android application for your project.
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) guide. UHC mode empowers CHWs to provide equitable and timely care to families in their catchment area. The CHT supports this use case by displaying the number of visits made to a household and highlights households which haven’t met their visit goal in red at the top of the contact list.
Permissions settings. This page explores assigning fine grained settings for various user roles.
program updates
How FCHVs in Nepal are Adapting to a New Normal During COVID-19 Lockdown
As frontline health workers in Nepal battle one of the world’s most severe outbreaks of COVID-19, technology-enabled community health work is now more important than ever.
In partnership with the MoHP, Medic has successfully scaled care coordination apps – powered by the CHT – to more than 10,500 FCHVs in Nepal. Among them, more than 2,700 FCHVs are now trained and equipped with SMS tools in Sudur Paschim Province.
In a new blog post by Medic teammates Min Baduwal, Project Officer, Nitin Nischal Bhandari, Program Head, and Niraj Kumar Nakarmi, Project Manager, learn how mHealth training and remote care coordination have become a lifeline between FCHVs and patients during lockdown.
Medic Launches Joint Report on Pandemic Preparedness in Partnership with Dimagi and The Rockefeller Foundation
Throughout 2020, Medic partnered with Dimagi and The Rockefeller Foundation to improve the ability of frontline workers (FLWs) to respond to COVID-19.
In a new, collaborative report and blog post, we explore how investments in digital platforms for FLWs can help prepare for future pandemics. The report presents potential ways that digital technologies can improve remote training, support equitably and effectively delivering COVID-19 vaccines, facilitate a broad spectrum of communicable disease control efforts, and much more.
internal news
For World Health Worker Week 2021, Medic Participates in Virtual Q&A with FCHV
While travel remains shuttered across Medic’s dispersed teams, our internal operations team ensured we celebrated World Health Worker Week together! Medic teammates in Nepal coordinated and facilitated a special interview and Q&A experience for our global team via Zoom.
Mina Arya, an FCHV in Nepal, graciously offered her time and expertise, sharing her experiences as an essential frontline health worker. Medic teammates had the opportunity to ask Mina about her daily activities, her experiences using SMS messaging to care for patients, the challenges and successes of her role, and much more.
new teammates
App Developer
Sr. Researcher, Data Science
Software Developer
Software Developer