Creating an EMR system to support mobile clinics in Haiti

While mobile clinic services have been tremendously helpful to patients in the under-developed areas, they often suffer from poor quality of patient management due to lack of capability for continuity of care. Collaborating with VillageMED, a US-based nonprofit that provides periodic medical services to Haiti communities, we investigated implications for the design of an EMR to support mobile clinics. Key design considerations we found include: (1) simplicity and ease of use, (2) seamless support of the existing clinical workflow through feature segmentation, and (3) flexibility to accommodate organizational and operational variability. Using the findings, we designed and implemented, through an iterative process, an EMR suitable for use in mobile clinics. We conclude by discussing design implications to improve quality of care in mobile clinics.