Existing research on improving antenatal care—using information and communication technologies and related technology—has focused on mobile phones to support SMS alerts and the implementation of a tool for booking appointments. The SMS alert system is limited in many ways, especially in addressing the conflicts in schedule and time for appointment and visit. Even with the reported tool(s) implemented, activities in the software development process, especially the design specifications, were not correctly followed and documented to justify the solutions proposed. By means of a qualitative research approach, a face-to-face oral interview with both pregnant women and obstetricians and a brainstorming session with the obstetricians were achieved. The chapter approach harnesses course-plotting technology to determine the most suitable obstetrician based on proximity and route with Google Map's aid. The result is presented from both analytical and technical perspectives to prevent and reduce the high rate of maternal and neonatal loss.
TopIntroduction
Over the years, the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) in the healthcare sector– particularly the internet, mobile, and web technologies– has revealed significant healthcare delivery improvement (Panir, 2011; Gambo and Soriyan, 2017). Notably, ICT diffusion and adoption in the healthcare sector generally take center stage in public health intervention programs, like Antenatal Care (ANC). For example, the improvement of maternal healthcare – as one crucial objective of the Millennium Development Objective (MDGs) – has been engendered through the use of ICTs (Ngabo et al., 2012; Mahapatra and Sahoo, 2015; Al Dahdah et al., 2015; Sondaal et al., 2016; Feroz et al., 2017; Uneke et al., 2017; Abejirinde et al., 2018; Thobias and Kiwanuka, 2018; Borsari et al., 2018). Specifically, significant mortality rates related to pregnancy and childbirth can be avoided if the women receive adequate and timely ANC using ICT as a facilitator.
At the center of ICTs development and application is the essential role of software engineering practices that provide essential support for thorough analysis and design specifications. The primary goal of analysis and design specification is to capture end-users concerns and represent them in a logically acceptable way. For example, designing mobile health (mHealth) solutions for ANC requires that patients-expectant mothers' and other healthcare professionals' concerns are captured, analyzed, and represented adequately. Additionally, the design specifications are the necessary acceptable criteria developed from the end-users needs (Johnson and Gibson, 2014; Hsiao, 2019). Jack (2013) observed that the presence/absence of customers' precise needs could serve as the basis for accepting or rejecting a design solution.
The imperfection and negligence in design specification in most ICT-based solutions in the healthcare domain could endanger human lives and lead to death. Remarkably, when patients' needs are not adequately captured in the analysis and design process, the system's functionality will not be trusted and reliable (Samaras and Horst, 2005; Dabbs et al., 2009; Dennis et al., 2015). In this context, the design specification is a recognized activity in the software development lifecycle for determining the quality and success of software-based solutions (Gambo et al., 2014; Teixeira et al., 2014). The design specification serves as the blueprint for implementation. It could also be used as a communication vehicle among various stakeholders (Bass et al., 2003).
Therefore, the overarching goal of this chapter is to provide a design specification for implementing a mHealth solution to improve ANC. The objective is to develop a system that would help expectant mothers access obstetricians close to their locations, schedule appointments for personal ANC and other related medical care at their own free time and most preferred location. The system's main idea is to provide ease and comfort to patients while getting a regular checkup based on the obstetricians' booked appointments.
Unlike the conventional ANC system that makes it difficult for pregnant women to book an appointment and receive prompt and timely care, the chapter proposed a mHealth solution that patients can easily and directly use to reach out to obstetricians. They can also table out issues and get immediate attention and solutions to their problems. With this, appointments can be booked or scheduled outside obstetricians' and pregnant women's work or office hours. That way, it will not affect their productivity at their respective workplace, which will, in turn, sustain the economy of the nation. The mHealth solution can also afford pregnant women to choose an obstetrician with ease.
The intended design specifications focused on the Nigerian case based on feasibility and need analysis. This chapter has four contributions: