P 30 Neonatal screening information system database

Abstract

Neonatal screening is the process of identifying infants with treatable metabolic diseases. Congenital Hypothyroidism is a treatable when identified within few days of birth before becoming symptomatic. Nuclear Medicine Unit (NMU) of the Faculty of Medicine, performed a test (named TSH) to find out affected infants when they between 24 hours and 7 days old. The NMU collect and analyze 1000-1500 bloodspots of newly born babies weekly from hospitals in Southern Province. The results sheets of samples analyzed have been prepared by manually and delivered to the Medical Officer of Health (MOH), through the Regional Director of Health Services by post in the end of each month. The MOH then informs each Public Health Midwife (PHM) to note down the results of the babies, whose mothers are under her care. This process takes at least 6 weeks to deliver the result to the infant's mother. This article describes an accumulation of Neonatal Screening Information System Database (NSISD) for the NMU as a solution to overcome obstructions of record keeping and dissemination of results. The system introduced was developed as a web based database using Scripting languages PHP, java script, CSS and database query language MySQL and codeigniter the free and open source PHP framework. Intention of this project was to facilitate to rapid disseminate, preserve, generate reports and manage results and data to provide fast, flexible and accurate searching with good security. The NSISD was facilitated to view TSH result of infant's to their mother with enter bead head ticket (BHT) and hospital via internet and send SMS to them automatically. Doctors, MOH, PHM, Directors and researchers can access data, reports and graphs according to their privileges. The rapid transfer of results to the infant's parents will ensure the confidence and acceptance of the screening program.