MMTI Theses and Dissertations (2014)

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http://hdl.handle.net/11071/2227

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A smart-phone mobile application solution for the management of hypertension
(Strathmore University, 2014) Njenga, Margaret Nyambura
Population health of a country is a very important aspect especially when it comes to the nation's productivity. With the increase in industrialization, lifestyle diseases are on the rise. These diseases have to be managed since individuals have to live with them in their lifetime. Hypertension has been identified as one of the major lifestyle diseases and is also one of the main causes of cardio-vascular diseases. A new integrated model that helps patients of hypertension to be able to monitor their lifestyle and manage it accordingly was designed and a mobile architecture developed. The application captures parameters important to monitor factors that cause hypertension. This information can be used by the medical practitioners to effectively monitor patients' health condition and as a result have a more informed judgment when giving a prescription. The patient in turn, is able to monitor him or herself in order to ensure compliance, with the kind of lifestyle and medication. The resulting mobile application's functionalities were tested with users, doctors and nurses. The doctors and nurses found that the parameters captured to test various factors were accurate and could be used to ensure compliance to change in lifestyle among patients. The patients found the mobile application user friendly, relevant and easy to use. This study can be used as a framework for other systems to be built upon. Mobile developers can use this application as a starting point to develop even better systems for other lifestyle diseases. Researchers may also build upon this work as a platform for improved frameworks and models.
A mobile based application to provide baby care information to mothers
(Strathmore University, 2014) Mberi, Tabitha Wanjiru
After nine months of carrying a baby and the challenges that come with pregnancy, a mother's joy becomes true when she gives birth to a healthy baby. Though delivery of a baby is a difficult moment, a mother should ensure that her new born survives. This can only be assured by knowing how to take care of her baby for example, ensure the umbilical cord is well cleaned so as not to be infected among other safety measures. Although doctors assure mothers and give them advice on how to take care of their child, most have questions that they prefer asking their friends who are mothers or buying locally available Baby magazines, books and Newspapers but with the high cost of living this has become very expensive to most mothers. A mobile application, Baby World was developed to provide information to mothers. The application gives information such as how to recognize symptoms on a baby, a list of hospitals she can visit when her child becomes sick, shops to buy baby supplies and recommended nannies and day care centres. It also allows users to share challenges they face when taking care of their babies and other users can answer and give solutions to such problems. Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used with the researcher using questionnaires and focus group discussions to collect the data after testing the application with 103 respondents who were mothers. The research findings show that after using the application, 85% of the 103 respondents were very satisfied in using the application as it was very easy to use. It also offered them a convenient, cheap way of accessing the information especially what they urgently needed. 80% of the users said they would highly recommend the application to others mothers sot that they would easily access baby care information. The users also made a few recommendations to the features they would like added to make the user experience even much better. The application has a high potential of growth as the modern mother wants such vital information at their fingertips.
A framework for the evaluation of ICT needs of mid-sized companies in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2014) Ocharo, Harriet Nyanchama
There are a lot of studies on information systems and technology adoption and implementation in various organizations such as educational institutions. The ICT needs of various organizations have been studied and number of frameworks proposed to enable the organizations evaluate their ICT needs and to implement suitable technology for their needs. However, a study specific to the ICT needs of medium-sized enterprises in Kenya has not been carried out before, and neither has a suitable needs-evaluation framework been proposed. This study sought out to investigate the ICT needs of medium-sized enterprises in Kenya. A review of literature revealed the importance of this topic: SMEs in general are important to a developing economy such as Kenya's, and ICT is instrumental in the growth of SMEs. Various ICT needs evaluation frameworks were reviewed. The study focused on successful medium-sized enterprises and studied how they had implemented ICT for their business needs. A sample 30, from the population of the top 100 companies listed by Nation Media Group and the professional firm KPMG in 2011, was taken and queried on their lCT strategies, benefits and challenges experienced while using ICT. The results were coded and analyzed using quantitative data analysis tools. The study established that medium-sized enterprises need and do use lCT to meet their business needs. It also found out that although frameworks for evaluating lCT needs of organizations exist, there were none suitable for medium-sized enterprises in a developing economy. It was therefore established that none of the medium-sized enterprises had used a framework when adopting lCT. The study proposed a framework that can be used for a medium-sized enterprise in Kenya to evaluate its lCT needs. The framework proposed consists of three main components: frameworks support (business strategy, lCT strategy); core activities (project management, review current situation, analyze needs, and acquisition and implementation) and post implementation review (feedback from users, review implementation status). Testing was done on 9 of the companies that took part in the study to ensure its validity. The framework will provide a way to identify the ICT needs of an organization.
A mobile based health-monitoring system for patients with diabetes
(Strathmore University, 2014) Otieno, Francis Odhiambo
Diabetes is a chronic disease that needs to be regularly monitored to keep the blood sugar level within normal ranges. This monitoring depends on a diabetic treatment plan that is periodically reviewed by the doctor. Currently, patients have to do the medical checkups and examinations from prescribed appointments after every periodic Doctor visit. According to the result of this medical checkups and examination, the doctor may need to modify the treatment plan. This creates a major problem since this process is tiring and time consuming while it creates a challenge of untimely monitoring due to lack of consistency and accuracy records of glucose levels making diabetes management unmanageable and a threat to the patient's life. Mobile computing can improve the quality of the patients' life by providing systems that help diabetes patients to monitor and control their diseases. These applications can help the doctors by providing remote monitoring to the patient. A mobile-based monitoring solution can be combined with communication technologies to present an integrated diabetesmonitoring tool. In this work we propose, a smartphone based monitoring and analysis application that automatically gathers inference for diabetes monitoring parameters such as blood glucose and weight, diet and exercise done by patient, in a manner that is transparent to the patient. This work includes an inference, which provides notifications while remotely monitoring patient health condition at the convenience of the patient and health practitioners. Generation of inference rules was done with the aid of two medical doctors. The work was tested and the results analyzed showed that it was able to gather inference and monitor patient conditions while giving alerts and notifications. All of the components yielded accurate analyses of glucose levels of the patients and it proved to be a novel utility in helping in monitoring of Diabetic cases. The patients reported satisfaction with the system because they felt connected to their physician and also giving them reminders for checking their sugar level, taking insulin or notification in case of critical levels.
Integration of ICT in assessments of large classes : a case of Strathmore University
(Strathmore University, 2014) Mukandutiye, Delphine Bheny
ICT can contribute to the development and efficiency of education management and administration. Efforts to introduce ICT in teaching, learning and assessment aim to help meet a wide variety of goals in the education sector. This dissertation is based on a research project that was driven by challenges facing traditional assessment of large classes, such as time consuming, late feedback among others. The research aimed at studying the widely used e-assessment tools, designing and testing the e-assessment framework and evaluating if differences existed between performances of students examined with traditional assessment and those examined with e-assessment, Furthermore, the research intended to investigate the feasibility of implementing e-assessment to complement eLearning in the University. The researcher used desktop research for relevant literature reviews for the e-assessment practice. Post-surveys were also conducted with over 300 users which included students and academic staff from various faculties in Strathmore University to gather their views on eassessment. Benefits and limitations of e-assessment were discussed. 87% of the respondents preferred eassessment over traditional assessment. It was revealed that e-assessment was better than traditional assessment because students performed better and they were happy about the instant feedback, lecturers spent more time setting up CATs but enjoyed the automated marking, analysis of results was easier and reports generation was faster. The University could also save about Kshs 2,060,800 (USD 24,000) per year by implementing e-assessment. The success of this research resulted to an eLearning Support Centre that was established to spearhead e-assessment, e-feedback and mobile learning in Strathmore University. The Centre aims at bringing about a better learning experience based on successful research.

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