This document calls for international collaboration to develop a mobile application (mICF) based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework to improve continuity of care and strengthen health systems. It discusses how the mICF could incorporate ICF-related information to provide a holistic overview of patients and allow information sharing between providers. An international group of 25 partners is sought to provide feedback and analyze data to help define and develop the mICF project.

1. World Health
Organization
Developing an ICF mobile application
(mICF) to improve continuity of care
and strengthen health systems:
A CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATION
Poster: C539
WHO-FIC meeting Beijing 2013
Stefanus Snyman, Catherine Sykes, Navreet Bhattal,
Ros Madden, Charlyn Goliath, Coen van Gool, Olaf Kraus de Camargo
ICF

2. ICF: WHO world standard
Functioning and disability multidimensional, interactive
World Health
Organization
Health Condition
(disorder/disease)
Body functions &
structures
(Impairment)
Activities
(Limitation)
Environmental
Factors
Participation
(Restriction)
Personal
Factors
2
ICF
2

3. The ICF Spring
• Community-based, person-centred healthcare
strategies are central to realising the vision to
reach health equity in the 21st century.1
• These strategies are designed to identify ill-health,
the determinants of health, and to facilitate
improvements in persons‟ health and their
participation in all areas of life.2
• The relevance of the ICF has been demonstrated
in community-oriented primary care (COPC) and
community-based rehabilitation (CBR), strategies
fundamental to health equity.1,2
Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta Z et al. Health Professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health
systems in an interdependent world. Lancet 2010;376:1923-1958.
2 Madden R, Dune T, Lukersmith S et al. The relevance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and
Health (ICF) in monitoring and evaluating Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR). Disability and Rehabilitation 2013;
Early online: 1-12.
World Health
Organization
1
ICF

4. The ICF Spring
• ICF as catalyst for health
systems reform on grass root
level
• Integrated into clinical practice:
patient-centred bio-psycho-social-spiritual
approach
• Community care level: 1 million community health
workers in Sub-Saharan Africa by 20151
• Increasingly mobile phone applications are being
used to collect health information to support
continuity of care.2
P, Sachs, J. 1 million community health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015. Lancet 2013;
382:363-365.
2 Labrique A, Vasudevan K, Kochi E, et al. mHealth innovations as health system strengthening tools:
12 common applications as a visual framework. Global health: Science and Practice 2013;1(2):160171.
World Health
Organization
1 Singh
ICF

5. The ICF Spring
• 50% of people own a mobile phone in the
developing world
• 70% have access to mobile phones
• 1000 new mobile broadband connections are
made every minute in the developing world
World Health
Organization
ICF

6. The ICF Spring
• However, the pivotal role
of data on functioning and
context is often
overlooked in mobile
applications designed to
capture patient
information.
• Currently, no mobile
applications incorporate
the ICF.
World Health
Organization
ICF

7. Goal of mICF
• Providing a means for healthcare workers to
collect and transfer ICF-related information to
support continuity of care
World Health
Organization
• Ensure accurate and efficient capture of functional status
and contextual information
• Convey information securely between service providers
in different service settings consistent with ethical and
privacy principles in relation to data sharing, e.g. among
clinicians
• Facilitate shared decision-making by making personcentred data readily available
ICF

8. Goal of mICF
• Patient-centred
World Health
Organization
• Patient / carer empowerment
• Facilitate administration and reporting through
data aggregation
• Gather statistics
• Data analysis
• Developing algorithms
• Not to re-invent the wheel
ICF

9. What is out there already?
• University of Sydney:
eFRHOM (electronic Functioning and Related
Health Outcomes Module)
• McMaster University
ICanFunction App Development - The App for the
ICF!
• Stellenbosch University: Android apps that can
integrate with OpenMRS (circulating cell phone)
• The Netherlands: “Revalidatie EPD”
• Italy: Faber; ICF Machine
• Switzerland
World Health
Organization
ICF

10. Practical Implications
The mICF should be:
• User friendly, including built-in decision support,
to assist community care workers in recording
data
World Health
Organization
• Low cost, ideally open source, to enable broad
accessibility and user configuration
• Able to provide a holistic overview of the
individual and information flows, including
assessment
data,
progress
reports
and
interprofessional treatment plans
• Capable of real-time reporting and provision of
aggregated datasets to health service and system
managers
ICF

11. Practical Implications
The mICF should be:
• An integrated single source of
functional status information,
which is accessible to patients
World Health
Organization
• Able to „plug in‟ and be
interoperable with existing
information record systems (e.g.
OpenMRS)
• Suitable for use in various
languages
ICF

12. Social Implications
The mICF could:
• Provide a means to collect and transfer ICFrelated information
World Health
Organization
• Add value to interprofessional collaborative
practice
• Improve continuity of care
• Contribute to more
efficient and cost
effective health systems
• Statistics and algorithms
ICF

13. Approach to research/develop mICF
World Health
Organization
ICF

14. Goal of 25 interested partners from FDRG
World Health
Organization
Feedback
to mICF
Data
analysis
Clinical
encounter
ICF

15. Next steps
• Needs requirement study
•
•
World Health
Organization
Questionnaire: potential end users and administrators
Identify pilot groups for requirement assessment
(currently: AU, ZA, IT, TH, CA, DE, BR, DK, KR)
WHO else?
• Evaluate current electronic ICF products
• Define project
• Consult with knowledge users (e.g. patients, health
practitioners)
• Develop partnership
•
Clarify potential intellectual property issues
• Identify potential project manager(s) (e.g.
postdoc)
ICF

16. Would you like to contribute?
World Health
Organization
Complete online questionnaire NOW
http://tiny.cc/mICF (case sensitive)
ICF

17. Thank you
More information
• Dr Stefanus Snyman: ssnyman@sun.ac.za
World Health
Organization
Centre for Health Professions Education, Stellenbosch University
Member: WHO Collaborating Centre: South Africa
• Ros Madden: ros.madden@sydney.edu.au
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney
Member: WHO Collaborating Centre Australia
• Catherine Sykes: csykes@wcpt.org
World Council of Physical Therapists
ICF