Glossary and Definitions

A

Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)

Antenatal Care (ANC)

Antiretrovirals (ARV)

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS)

B

Backend

The parts of the software that make the front end happen. These are all hidden from the user.

C

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (US) (CDC)

Childhood Immunizations (IMM)

Community Based Organization (CBO)

Community Based Volunteers (CBV)

Community Health Assistants (CHA)

Community Health Extension Worker (CHEW)

Community Health Information System (CHIS)

Community Health Promoters (CHP)

Community Health Toolkit (CHT)

Community Health Volunteer (CHV)

Community Health Worker (CHW)

“The umbrella term ‘Community Health Worker’ embraces a variety of community health aides selected, trained and working in the communities from which they come” (WHO, 2007). CHWs may be any gender, young or old, with high or low levels of literacy, salaried or volunteer, full-time or part-time. CHWs are fundamental to the provision of primary preventive and curative health care, especially in rural areas where higher-level health professionals may not be available.

D

Data for Decision-Making (DDM)

Department for International Development (UK) (DFID)

Digital Adaptation Kit (DAK)

Digital Adaptation Kits are part of the SMART guidelines initiative to ensure WHO’s evidence-based guideline content is accurately reflected in the digital systems countries are adopting.

Digital Health Atlas (DHA)

Digital Solutions for Malaria Elimination (DSME)

District Health Information System (DHIS)

District Health Office (DHO)

District Nurse (DN)

E

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

Estimated Date of Delivery (EDD)

Event Based Surveillance (EBS)

F

Family Planning (FP)

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

FHIR is an HL7 specification for healthcare interoperability.

Female Community Health Volunteer (Nepal) (FCHV)

Financing Alliance for Health (FAH)

Frontend

The parts of the software that users see and interact with.

Fully Immunized Children (FIC)

G

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)

Global Unique Identifier (GUID)

H

Health Extension Program (Ethiopia) (HEP)

Health Extension Worker (Ethiopia) (HEW)

Health Level 7 (HL7)

Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services.

Health Management Information System (HMIS)

Health Management Team (HMT)

Health System Challange (HSC)

Health Systems Strengthening (HSS)

Human Centered Design (HCD)

Human Resources for Health (HRH)

I

Information & Communication Technology (ICT)

Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM)

Integration

An arrangement of an organization’s information systems that allows them to communicate efficiently and effectively.

Read more: Integrations

Internet of Things (IoT)

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

Interoperability

The ability of health information systems to work together, even if they weren’t specifically designed to work together. With interoperability, patient information can be seen, exchanged, and used across different platforms.

Read more: Interoperability

J

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

L

Last Menstruation Period (LMP)

Last Mile Health (LMH)

Living Goods (LG)

Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)

Loss To Follow Up (LTFU)

Low/Middle Income Country (LMIC)

M

Machine Learning (ML)

Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Testing (mRDT)

Malnutrition (Mal)

Maternal, and Child Health (MCH)

Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH)

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

mHealth

mHealth stands for mobile-based or mobile-enhanced solutions that deliver health. The ubiquity of mobile devices in the developed or developing world presents the opportunity to improve health outcomes through the delivery of innovative medical and health services with information and communication technologies to the farthest reaches of the globe.

Minimum Viable Project/Product (MVP)

A minimum viable product is a product with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle. The MVP can help the product team receive user feedback as quickly as possible to iterate and improve the product.

Ministry of Health (MOH)

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

More information on the MDM page.

Monitor and Evaluation (M&E)

N

Non-Communicable Disease (NCD)

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

O

One Million Community Health Workers Campaign (1MCHW)

Open Data Kit (ODK)

Open Health Initiative (OHI)

Open Medical Record System (OMRS)

P

Partner

An organization, company, or public institution overseeing or supporting a health system. We help partners equip health workers, deploy the tools, and improve outcomes in their systems.

Partners in Health (PIH)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Postnatal Care (PNC)

Primary Health Care (PHC)

Priority Use Case (PUC)

Use case that has been prioritized by Medic for continued learning, improvement, and large-scale distribution.

Product

Our product is what we deliver to health workers and communities, technology tool(s) and use case(s).

Progressive Web App (PWA)

More information on the PWA page.

Project

Collaborative endeavor aimed at delivering mobile tools to health workers and improving health systems. Projects typically involve needs assessments, design, configuration, training, post-deployment support, and impact monitoring.

Protected Health Information (PHI)

Pull Request (PR)

Q

Quality Assurance (QA)

R

Rapid Diagnostic Testing (RDT)

Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (RMNCH)

S

Service Reporting (SR)

Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

SMART Guidelines

Standards-based, Machine-readable, Adaptive, Requirements-based, and Testable Guidelines are a comprehensive set of reusable digital health components authored by the WHO that transform the guideline adaptation and implementation process to preserve fidelity and accelerate uptake. Read more on the WHO SMART Guidelines page.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Statement of Work (SOW)

A Statement of Work is a formal document that describes the project goals. The Statement of Work contains a section on the Scope of Work outlining how a team plans to deliver the project goals.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.” More info.

Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED)

T

Technical Partner (TP)

Technical Working Group (TWG)

Tool

Software, hardware, or platform provided to our partners and users, e.g. applications built with CHT, Android app, Analytics.

Toolkit

Group of tools, some of which can be deployed together.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA)

Training of Trainer (TOT)

Tuberculosis (TB)

U

USAID’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact (CII)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Universal Health Coverage means that all people have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. It includes the full range of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.

Use Case

Specific use of tools to achieve a goal in a system, e.g. antenatal care coordination. As described in systems engineering, a use case is a list of action steps to achieve a goal.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

V

Village Health Teams (VHT)

Village Health Works (VHW)

W

Women of Reproductive Age (WRA)

World Health Organization (WHO)

The WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners and people to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health.