NDLI: Exploring the potential of introducing an electronic death registration system in South Africa

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Sant Fruchtman, Carmen Kallis, Natasha Govender, Sudarshan Bradshaw, Debbie Cobos, Daniel Morof, Diane Groenewald, Pamela
Abstract	Background Despite South Africa’s well-established Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system (CRVS) and good completeness of death registration, challenges persist in terms of the quality of cause of death information and the delayed availability of mortality statistics. The introduction of an electronic medical certification of cause of death (eMCCD) system may offer opportunities to improve both the quality and timeliness of this information. Methods This study used an exploratory mixed methods design to investigate perceptions surrounding an electronic solution for registering deaths in South Africa. We conducted 14 key informant interviews from 23 key informants invited, surveyed 208 out of 250 targeted health workers and engaged with more than 500 South African health professionals in a participatory workshop about the acceptability of introducing an eMCCD. Mentimeter was used to obtain feedback from the participants. Rapid qualitative analysis methods were used to analyse the key informant interviews and descriptive statistics for the survey and workshop data. During the interpretation phase, qualitative and quantitative data were integrated according to key themes that emerged from the data. Results During the qualitative interviews, the underlying factors mentioned as contributing to inadequate mortality data quality included insufficient MCCD training, diseases subjected to stigma, limited access to and quality of patient health information, and a significant proportion of deaths occurring outside medical facilities. More than 80.8% of the surveyed health professionals (168/208) rated the importance of mortality statistics as high, but the current quality was rated as low or very low by 29.3% (61/208). An eMCCD appeared to be acceptable to most workshop participants who registered on Mentimeter and was perceived as a means to strengthen the timeliness of mortality information. However, 43.0% (68/158) of the workshop participants who responded to this question on Mentimeter saw poor internet use as the main barrier to introducing an online system. Conclusions Our results shed light on critical aspects surrounding cause of death information in South Africa, as well as the challenges faced in maintaining the quality of such data. The findings suggest that the implementation of an eMCCD system could provide opportunities to strengthen the cause of death information in South Africa if it is designed to integrate into the current system and provide supplementary functionalities.
Related Links	https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12961-024-01275-8.pdf
Ending Page	12
Page Count	12
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14784505
DOI	10.1186/s12961-024-01275-8
Journal	Health Research Policy and Systems
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	22
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2024-12-30
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Health Administration R & D Technology Policy Medicine Public Health Health Services Research Health Policy Mortality information Digital health Health systems South Africa R & D/Technology Policy Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Health Policy
Journal Impact Factor	3.6/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	4.3/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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