A PROJECT PROPOSAL ON THE USE OF

INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE TECHNOLOGY IN

HEALTH CARE

(UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL - A CASE STUDY)

SUBMITTED

BY

OLADELE FEMI .K

(TP11/12/H/2494)

COMUPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY

ILE-IFE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR

THE AWARD OF MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY IN

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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1. INTRODUCTION

Information System (IS) is a discipline concerned with the strategic managerial and

operational activities involved in the gathering, processing, storing, distributing and use of

information, and its associated technologies in society and organizations.

Typically information systems include people, procedures, data, software and hardware

that are used to gather and analyze digital information.

The trend in I.T is geared towards the achievement of the state called “the paperless office”.

Health Information System (HIS) refers to any system that captures, stores, manages, or

transmits information related to the health of individuals or the activities of organizations

that work within the health sector.

Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) is a technology that automates interactions

with telephone callers and communication systems, it allows efficient exchange of

information to or from a database.

How Interactive Voice Response System Works

The technology uses automated interactions with telephones using pre-recorded voice

prompts and menus and the touch-tone keypad. (DTMF), advancement in technology has

made it possible to also use of voice recognition to get input responses from spoken word.

It is believed that IVRS can be applied in the following aspects of healthcare

- Chronic Disease Management (CDM)

. Diabetics: Low income, ethnically diverse

. Hypertension, mental health, heart failure, support for smoking cessation.

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- Medical Management (MM)

. Oral Anti-coagulation

. Medical support & refill compliance

- Special Populations (SP)

. Nicotine and EOTH usage issues

. Cervical Ca Screenings

. Depression Self Help

- General Uses (GU)

. Questionnaires and Surveys

. Satisfaction with treatment

. Post discharge patient safety and follow-up

. Outcomes monitoring

. Collection of race and ethnicity data

. Care coordination & home monitoring

. Assessments

Chronic Disease Management

A literature review in 2000 shows IVR has been used in the treatment of patients with

chronic health problems such as heart failures, diabetes, hypertension and mental health

disorders. Patient reported information was seen as reliable as that obtained in a clinical

interview or medical record review.

Piette, J. (2000) Interactive voice response systems in the diagnosis and management of

chronic disease. The American journal of Managed Care. Vol 6: 817- 827

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1.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION

Healthcare in Nigeria and most African countries is far from being an ideal system, there

are very few healthcare systems that are up to acceptable standard and those are quite

expensive and not affordable to the average citizen who usually need it most, the other

affordable ones are the federal government owned teaching hospitals which are usually

over-crowded and usually leaves patients frustrated.

The provision of such a system emanates due to the following challenges in the existing

methods;

- Gross inefficiency and time wastage in the existing method of health care

delivery especially in federal government owned teaching hospitals.

- Unnecessary stress being experienced by the patients who most of the time do

not get the needed care on time or at all.

- Extra cost being incurred by patients to go state-of-the-art medical facilities

usually in the developed countries.

In this project, a system will be designed which will:

1. Integrate into existing IVRS Server system to create the core functionality

2. Generate APIs to customize the IVRS system to healthcare scenarios

3. Collect patient information via the IVRS system and provide solution to the

patient’s challenges

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1.2 CASE STUDY – UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL IBADAN

University College Hospital, Ibadan is a tertiary healthcare institution that offers world-

class training, research and services. Comprising of about Nine (9) Clinical departments

and 5 Non-clinical departments, a few numbers of colleges and institutes, all jointly

headed by the board of directors. This study seeks how to integrate Interactive Voice

Response System in the above named hospital.

1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

Provision of some Health care services swiftly and professionally without need to be

physically present in the hospital

Provision of some health care services swiftly and professionally by eliminating the usual

bottle-necks of the existing methods.

Integration of information systems into healthcare

Utilization of Information system tools in professional delivery of healthcare.

Cost Reduction on the path of both the client (patient) and the healthcare provider

Utilization of Information system tools will have positive economic and financial effects

in healthcare institutions; it eliminates unnecessary cost incurred in employing several

hospital staff to provide health-related support to patients which could have been done by

the IVRS. And also saves patient the cost of having to come physically to the hospital or

travelling outside the country for adequate healthcare.

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1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The main objective of the proposed work is to integrate Interactive Voice Response System

into healthcare in Nigeria

- Integrate into existing IVRS Server system to create the core functionality

- Generate APIs to customize the IVRS system to healthcare scenarios

- Collect patient information via the IVRS system and provide solution to the

patient’s challenges.

This work is aimed at solving administrative and operational problems.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

The research method that will be adopted in this work is based on information gathering,

analysis and reporting.

Execution of study is divided into the following phases;

- Reviewing the existing method of healthcare service delivery in Nigeria

- Designing the proposed System as both Web and Console Application Using Visual

C# Programming Language and MySQL Database.

- Implementation of the system.

- Testing and analyzing of data

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1.6 PROPOSED DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

The design phase of this project will be concerned with planning the structure of the system

to ensure it fulfills its objectives. It provides the blueprint for the system and will help

detect problems before they are built into the final system. This phase identifies the

different processes required for the functioning of the system.

1. Development process

The focus of the development phase is on the understanding and analysis of data types

collected and output generated after processing. The data collected starts with the

registration of student and progresses from there to other stages.

The development process places strong emphasis on the type of information required by

the administration and the necessary manipulations needed for the ease of management.

2. Technical Requirement

The components that make up the technical requirement are

- Software

- Hardware.

These are necessary for optimal performance and for running the application.

3. Security

Access to the system and the database will be restricted and controlled using password

security feature with various levels of administrative right given (as required) to the various

users of the system. Unauthorized user access to the system is prevented.

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1.7 USE CASE DIAGRAM

Provide Inputs (DTMF)

Make Calls

Recieve Calls

Transfer Calls

Provide Health Information Support

Handle Exceptional Cases

Client(Patient)

IVRS

Administrator

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CAPTIONS OF FROM THE HEALTHCARE IVRS APPLICATION

Interactive Voice Response System Server

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Softphone Used on Computers

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API to customize the 3rd Party IVRS Server.