SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR REDUCTIONG OF INFANT MORTALITY IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES (NIGERIA AS A CASE STUDY) SSRIM One of the greatest challenges in  the fight to reduce infant mortality is the lack of regular, periodic information feed back machanism , by which field workers, clinics, hospitals and all health related proffesionals cannot accuratly gather information relating to infant mortalities as they occur. As a result of this, the information which eventually gets passed to the world bank, WHO and all other stake hoolders in this enterprise is inaccurate at best. This in turn affects the appropriate allpcation of resources to combat infant mortality. Also significant trends can also be overlooked due to inaccuracy of data. THE goal of SSRIM is to provide an information system that is able to provide accurate information  feed back mechanism and to enable stake holders measure perfomance in the quest to reduce infant mortlity by 2015. SSRIM CONCEPT: SSRIM works on the premis that  in order to achieve a set goal, which is in this case to reduce infant mortality, one must be able to constantly and accuratly measure  perfomance of activites geared toward meeting the set goal. This may usually invlove setting sub goals, and monitoring how well these sub goals are acheived. This will be a good indicator as to the performance of all stake holders especially field workers as they strive to meet set goals by meeting sub goals. Defeciencies can be highlited, trends and patterns spotted and forcasts can be made as to if key golas can be met, which in this case is the reduction of infant mortality by the year 2015. When sub goals are not being met, they can easily be identified, and questions can be asked as to the immediate and remote causes of sub goals not being met, solutions can be profeered by decision makers, in terms of the allocation of resources, changing of strategies and other forms of reorganization, so that sub goals and eventually the main goal is met. SSRIM OPERATION: SSRIM makes use of key indicators provided by worldbank through is databank. The key indicator used is the  infant moratality rate per 1000 infants in nigeria. SSRIM  carries out statistical analysis and perfoms a forcast based on pervious years infant mortality rate per 1000 infants in Nigeria. Previous information suggests a downward trend  in this indicator. What SSRIM does then is to set targest on a daily,weekly,monthly and yearl basis and through its information gathering modules compares data from the field, compares field data with set targets base on world bank data on infant mortality for nigeria, and highlights those instances where set targets have not been met. Decesion makers cn then ask questions and take the neccessary actions to correct whatever anormally that may be causing the lapses. SSRIM throuhg can also be used to quickly identify the outbreaks of epidemics at remote locations where acces to information can be hard to reach EXAMPLE SCENARIO: The world bank data sources recorded 137.9 infant mortalities for every 1000 infants in Nigeria for the year 2009, which is the ninetenth highest in the world. Based on its statistical analysis module, SSRIM forcasts an infant moratlity rate of 180 infants for every 1000 infants. SSRIM then sets sub goals which stipulate that in order for the goal of 180 infants per 1000 to be met, health workers/institutuions must record not more than 4 infant mortalities per 1000 infants in any given week of the year 2010. If any locality within the area of study (Nigeria) reports a higher figure, then local aauthorities and health instituions can look into that area and see if there are particular reasons for the moratility rates in that area. What SSRIM succeded in doing was to indentify areas/localities that are recoring infant mortalities above the set goals, and drawing the attention of all stakeholders to that particular area. The SSRIM philosohphy is that if sub goals can be met, the main objective is more likly to be acheived, which is in this case the the reduction of infant mortality by 2015. SSRIM STUDY AREA: Nigeria was used as the case study for SSRIM for certain reasons which include it having one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, and reducing the infant mortality rate for nigeria will go a long way in reducing global infant mortality by 2015, also the  solutions that are applicable to nigeria are also likly to work well in other third world countries. SSRIM COMPONENTS: SSRIM DATA BASE: This component stores data that is collected via the SSRIM web client  and SSRIM mobile client. The date includes occurences of infant mortalities, locations and dates. It also includes causes of death and other information that may prove helpfull. SSRIM DATA BRIDGE: This module pulls data from the worlbank datasources and caches it in the SSRIM DATA BASE, in this case data pertaining to infant mortality in nigeria. SSRIM Web client: This is a web based component of SSRIM that allows for health workers and institutions enter data pertaining to occurences of infant mortalities within thier locality SSRIM mobile client: A mobile device based application that allows for health workers and institutions enter data pertaining to occurences of infant mortalities within thier locality.This is aided by the presence of various GSM operators in nigeria who provide network based interner access,thus making SSRIM mobile client an easily accesible tool,even in remote areas. SSRIM REPORTING: This module give a graphical display of infant moortalities recorded of varous time periods and locations, and highlihts areas where set limits have been exceeded SSRIM STATS: this module performs the statistical forcasting used to set infant mortality targets, and also compares captured data with world bank based data, and determines if goals are being met. USAGE SSRIM USERS just need to fill either the web based data entry form, or the SSRIM MOBILE client. Periodic reports can then be viewed by clicking the reports  link

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