The Digital Health Payment Initiative and Research in Africa project (DHPI-R) through Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) and the University of Dakar Senegal (UCAD) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have awarded research grants to six graduate students.
On Monday 19th September 2022, four successful students from Makerere University signed their contracts and will each receive a grant amounting to $4000. Two successful students from the University of Dakar Senegal were also awarded grants worth $5000 each.
The students awarded include; Wagaba Michael, Namuyonga Priscilla, Patrick Albert Ipola, and Arnold Tigaiza from Makerere University. From University of Darkar Senegal, we had Pape Latyr FAYE and Dr. El Hadji Cheikh Abdoulaye DIOP.
The grants are designed to support research in the thematic areas suggested by the project and these include the Utility of digital payments, gender inclusivity, the Process of digital payment, Awareness about digital payment, and Policies in a period of 6 months.
Through the above-identified thematic areas, the project will be able to identify how, and under what circumstances digital payments of health workers can support effective campaign delivery, and through these research areas, the project will be able to generate the desired evidence.
Present during the signing of the contracts was Dr. Elizabeth Ekirapa the DHPI-R Anglophone Hub director and Cynthia Murungi the DHPI-R project administrator who gladly handed over contracts to the grantees.
Expressions of the successful students on signing their grant contracts
Excited on signing the grant contract, Priscilla Namuyonga, a Master’s student at Makerere University, College of Computing and Information Sciences Makerere University pursuing a master’s in Information Systems. says she is currently in the final stages of her research.
“Before participating in the DHPI – R grant, I had participated in a study that sought to develop a mobile application, My pregnancy guide in response to the high maternal mortality ratio, by sharing reminders about antenatal appointments, mapping nearest hospitals that expectant mothers could visit and availing all information regarding healthy pregnancy care, She explained.
However, it was acknowledged that a percentage of the maternal mortality ratio was due to demotivated health workers, who were saddened by the challenges in the payment system, not to mention the overwhelmingly high number of patients needing health care,” Namuyonga said.
To her, the DHPI-R grant provided an opportunity to explore the proposition of digital health payments as a contribution to solving payment challenges facing Health workers in Uganda.
Namuyonga’s research explores the health workers’ level of awareness, perceptions, experiences, and preferences toward digital payments and then describes the facilitators and barriers to using digital payments among health workers. This will guide all efforts toward implementing the use of Digital payments among health workers in Uganda.
“As a young researcher this is not only going to enable me to practice my research knowledge and skills but also empower me to contribute to improving the payment system in the health sector of our country,” She concluded.
Patrick Albert Ipola is a Health Services Researcher and laboratory Technologist with a keen interest in improving utilization, accessibility, affordability, equity, acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and quality of health services.
During his research, Ipola will be working on “Acceptability and Perceptions of Health Workers towards the use of Digital Payments as a mode of payments for their services offered during health campaigns. A community health workers (CHWs) perspective in Kumi District Uganda.
He says, “I am passionate about developing pragmatic interventions that are patient-centered and aimed at improving patient satisfaction and addressing any disparities in healthcare. I am also keen on quality assurance, capacity building, and health systems strengthening,” Ipola said.
‘I hope that understanding the acceptability of digital payments among health workers could facilitate the development of pragmatic solutions and digital payment policies that are responsive to the needs and concerns of health workers. In addition, understanding bottlenecks, barriers, and facilitators for digital payments could also facilitate further improvements in the payment processes of Health Workers using digital payment.,” Ipola.
Arnold Tigaiza holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health Science (EHS) and currently pursuing a master’s of public health (MPH) at Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH).
“I have about 4 years of experience doing research-related work. A couple of my contributions can be accessed online. When I heard about this call for proposals, I right away knew that I had to apply. I also believed in my capabilities to compete favorably for the grant given that I have been doing this for some time. Since the call pointed out areas of interest, settling for a topic and conceptualizing the study was easy. I am glad I made it,” Tigaiza said.
He is to assess the acceptability and effectiveness of digital health payments among Community Health Workers in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, Uganda. Digital payments are critical to the future of health services; however, their perspective-wide usage has not triggered adequate research on their acceptability among healthcare workers.
“This is also similar to effectiveness. How effective have the payments been for entities already adopting these systems? I feel like these are key questions and will generate evidence that can probably shape the future of digital health payments. Besides, this study will also explore the facilitators and barriers to the use of digital payments,” Tigaiza explained.
As an early career researcher, Tigaiza says this is a stepping stone for me to archive bigger things. “It has not only shown me that I’m capable, but it also comes with an opportunity to experience managing a research grant. It is a strong addition to my CV. Among the key deliverables is a manuscript submitted to a reputable peer-reviewed journal for publication. When published, the article will be good for my visibility as a young researcher,” Tigaiza added.
Pape Latyr Faye is a health geography from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar where he specialized in human geography in the third year of his degree and then proceeded to pursue a master's degree in "Environment, territory, population, and health" at the department of geography.
Pape later joined the Institute of Research for Development (IRD). Where his work was in setting up databases of the different programs and projects for population and health observatory levels and report writing. Additionally, he has also worked with the international network against food insecurity and malnutrition at the Senegalese Institute of Agronomic Research where he was visualizing their data in the form of a map.
“My work will focus on the utility of digitizing health worker payments. First of all, in Africa, the digitization of payments is a challenge in itself, and this is true in all areas and sectors of activity that punctuate our daily lives, despite the rapid development of electronic money issuers. So in this research work on the usefulness of digital payments for health workers, I will contribute to the establishment of tangible evidence on the fact that a health system that desires to be modern, resilient, and efficient necessarily requires the digitization of the payment of its human resources, including health workers during vaccination campaigns, emphasizing the advantages of digital payment (traceability of funds, time-saving, transparency, rapid disbursement ...) but also to analyze the challenges and constraints that may face these initiatives,” Pape explained.
“As a researcher, being associated with a work that aims to understand the impact of technological innovations in people's lives, to me, it’s a privilege and an extraordinary experience knowing the immense impact that the evolution of new technologies has on our societies. But it is also an opportunity to participate in the dynamization of our health systems and at the same time to improve my experience in scientific research and consequently take on new challenges for the continent,” he said.
Dr. Diop is passionate about research in Public Health, that he entered a specialization in the framework of the Diploma of specialized studies in Public Health and began a Ph.D. in Public Health at the Institute of Health and Development (ISED) in 2021 under the direction of Pr Mouhamadou Makhtar Mbacké LEYE on the; study of prevention strategies of cervical cancer in the South East of Senegal.
“I will work on the knowledge, attitudes, practices, and acceptability of digital payment by providers in the Koumpentoum health district. This study will help in the decision-making process, particularly by setting up a digital payment system for providers in the district that secures funding, guarantees the quality of accounting documents, and saves time,” he said.
As a researcher, this will help him in promoting operational research, action research, and digital health which are real challenges for the health system