Grants:Project/Rapid/Mgonzalezmillan/Wikipedia Project for Offline Education in Medicine (POEM) Guatemala
columbia.edu
This is the continuation of the Wikipedia Project for Offline Education in Medicine (POEM) which has the goal of getting offline Wikipedia medical information in regions without internet access in Latin America and in under-represented languages. In March 2017, a group of students of the Master of Public Administration in Development Practice (MPA-DP) of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) traveled to the Dominican Republic to conduct a medical needs assessment study and test the applicability of the Internet-in-a-Box in rural clinics. The team identified there is need for offline medical information and that practitioners are interested in the device as a tool for health practice, training for medical professionals, and communication with Creole-speaking patients. They suggested upgrades to the device, content updates, and potential implementation mechanisms.
Because of the need and enthusiasm for the device, the team determined to replicate this feasibility study in Guatemala. This country offers an interesting comparison case because it has a notably lower income and a more difficult geography. Besides, Guatemala has community health workers and a significant indigenous population. This would allow testing the device in a more challenging setting and with different groups of people of interest.
Project Goal[edit]
The goals of the study are:
- To promote Wikipedia content with health practitioners without internet connectivity
- Foster the Wikipedia community by expanding medical content in Spanish and indigenous languages (mainly from the Maya family) and promoting local content-production
Project Plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
The project will have the support of the Mount Sinai’s Global Health Division and its Wikipedia group. It also receives training and support from Lane Rasberry, the Wikipedian in Residence at Consumer Reports, who facilitates the publication of health and medical information on Wikipedia. In Guatemala, it will be implemented in partnership with the NGO “Friends of San Lucas”.
The SIPA organizers are Glenn Denning, director of the MPA-DP program, and Kendal Stewart, manager of the MPA-DP program. The project will receive the academic guidance of Anne Nelson and the technical advice of Mariela Machado (SIPA 2016). It works in partnership with Dr. Ramona Sunderwirth from Mount Sinai, Lane Rasberry from Wikipedia, and Adam Holt from Internet-in-a-Box.
The research will be conducted by Maria Gonzalez Millan, a Mexican SIPA student who was chosen from a competitive field at the beginning of the spring semester, and Samuel Zidovetzki, an emergency room physician who has been treating patients for the past 4 years and has been going to Guatemala for the last 6 years every year to help with a medical school elective and provide continuing education for local health providers. Both of them have experience in international settings and are a native Spanish speaker and fluent in Spanish, respectively. They have an active Wikipedia account; have been engaged in surveying and evaluating the available Spanish content; and have edited a series of Wikipedia articles related to the project. They have also taken a two-hour training session with Lane Rasberry.
Maria Gonzalez Millan and Samuel Zidovetzki will travel to Guatemala at the end of July of 2017 to interview health practitioners and other relevant stakeholders like NGOs, government officials, and electricity and telecommunications companies. The activities will be carried out in collaboration with the NGO “Friends of San Lucas” and local doctors. These include:
- Plan the study (conduct desk research, create the questionnaires, and contact potential interviewees)
- Conduct the field study (visit clinics and interview health practitioners and relevant stakeholders)
- Process the results and produce the final report with recommendations
The research will include:
- Information and communication technologies penetration and use among health practitioners
- Current extent and use of medical information among health practitioners
- Potential applicability of the Internet-in-a-Box and interest among health practitioners and other stakeholders
The research will conducted in Guatemala City and the towns around Lake Atitlan (mainly San Lucas).
An extensive report will be written documenting and analyzing the process and the outcomes; recording findings; and offering a set of recommendations to the Wikimedia Foundation and Internet-in-a-Box about the device and its content and its potential implementation in the country. Results will also be shared with relevant stakeholders in Guatemala.
After the research, two Internet-in-a-Box devices will be left in hospitals and clinics among trusted health workers with whom Sam Zidovetzki has worked previously. Follow-up monitoring will be done virtually or, if possible, by Sam Zidovetzki, who visits the country frequently. Efforts will be made so local partners can take ownership over the project and the devices and do some upkeep and monitoring themselves.
Impact[edit]
How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:
- If the Wikimedia Foundation and Internet-in-a-Box learn if Wikipedia’s medical information and the device is useful for health workers in low-connectivity settings in Guatemala and obtain information about the best way to implement it
- If the recommendations allow the Wikimedia Foundation and Internet-in-a-Box to improve its medical information and the device in terms of hardware and content in Spanish and indigenous languages for use in clinical settings without internet access
Resources[edit]
We will receive funds from SIPA’s MPA-DP program, which will cover most of Maria Gonzalez's travel expenses. Additional funding is required to cover part of her expenses, Sam Zidovetzki's travel expenses, and two Internet-in-a-Box devices. The project is seeking support from Wikimedia Foundation to cover these remaining expenses:
- Flights: $710 x 1 person = $710
- Room and board: $30 x 16 days x 1 person = $480
- Transport: $200 x 2 people = $400
- Travel insurance: $150 x 1 person = $150
- Internet-in-a-Box: $130 x 2 devices = $260 (includes hardware and content)
- TOTAL: $2,000
Endorsements[edit]
- I support the continuation of this project. This is the third grant request from this team in recent months.
- This team has presented multiple talks at universities, published some early results, has speakers on the agenda at 2017 Wikimania, and has a history of engagement with Wikimedia NYC going back some years. Eventually this project should be centrally planned with one budget and set of goals but right now different team members are taking Wiki content and deploying it in different regions. One arm of the project went to Cuba, another to the Dominican Republic, and now this one is for Guatemala. The money requested is low considering that Central America outside Mexico is an area with little history of Wikimedia engagement and also the high preparation of the team and their eagerness to include minority native language outreach in the problem. I am happy with the results of this program. I also think that team leaders in this program should connect with Wikimedia Foundation grant officers for ongoing support and guidance about designing and funding projects. Overall, this entire program has not requested even USD 10,000, but from a wiki standpoint I am wondering how to organize all the arms of these programs as a single narrative with multiple grant requests. Blue Rasberry (talk) 11:31, 9 June 2017 (UTC)