JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to over 500 million cases and 6.2 million deaths around the world. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) like Armenia have faced unique infrastructure, financial, and capacity challenges that in many cases resulted in worse outcomes. Healthcare facilities across Armenia experienced a shortage of resources including hospital beds and oxygen which was further exacerbated by the war with neighboring Azerbaijan. Without a framework for home-based care, healthcare facilities were severely strained by COVID-19 patients who had prolonged oxygen requirements but were otherwise clinically stable.

Objective:

This paper describes our approach to establishing an international collaboration to develop a web application to support home monitoring for patients with COVID-19 with persistent oxygen requirement.

Methods:

The app was developed using a rapid, coordinated, and collaborative approach involving an international group of clinicians, developers, and collaborators. Health screening, monitoring, and discharge forms were developed into a lightweight OpenMRS web-app and customized for the local Armenian context.

Results:

The software was designed and developed over 2 months using human centered design and agile sprints. Once live, 5,022 patient records were created for 439 unique patients.

Conclusions:

This project suggests a promising framework for designing and implementing remote monitoring programs in LMICs despite pandemic and geopolitical challenges.