On-Cloud Motherhood Clinic: A Healthcare Management Solution for Rural Communities in Developing Countries

Abstract

Background: Modern telecommunication infrastructure enables bridging of the digital divide between rural and urban healthcare services, promoting the provision of suitable medical care and support. Thus far, there has been some positive impacts to applying mobile health (m-Health) solutions, but their full potential in relation to cloud computing has is yet to be realised. It is imperative to develop an innovative approach for addressing the digital divide in a context of developing country. Method: Adopting a design science research approach (DSR), this study describes an innovative m-Health solution utilising cloud computing that enables healthcare professionals and women in rural areas to achieve comprehensive maternal healthcare support. We developed the solution framework through iterative prototyping with stakeholders’ participation, and evaluated the design using focus groups. Results: The cloud-based solution was positively evaluated as supporting healthcare professionals and service providers. It was perceived to help provide a virtual presence for evaluating and diagnosing expectant mothers’ critical healthcare data, medical history, and in providing necessary service support in a virtual clinic environment. Conclusions: The new application offers benefits to target stakeholders enabling a new practice-based paradigm applicable in other healthcare management. We demonstrated utilities to address target problems as well as the mechanism propositions for meeting the information exchange demand for better realisation of practical needs of the end users.