Common Functional User Requirements for Electronic Registries Supporting the Provision of Contraceptive Methods

Standardized electronic registries are increasingly becoming an entry point to adopting client health records and facilitating population-level tracking of health services. They offer diverse functionalities including vital events tracking, electronic health records, electronic decision support, provide work planning and scheduling. However, electronic registries can only be appropriately designed by first getting a comprehensive picture of the actual tasks and processes associated with service provision; the issues and barriers experienced; and the content and flow of data - all within the local context and aligned with the local infrastructure. In this work a core group of experienced frontline health workers employed at the World Health Organization Headquarters was invited to collaboratively map and analyze the common workflows of healthcare workers involved in contraceptive care. The core group then collaboratively identified common functional user requirements that facilitate the development of electronic registries that support contraceptive care. The output from this work shows that involving frontline healthcare workers in requirements engineering for development of electronic registries is indeed a practical approach and a vital first step in ensuring their acceptability among users and applicability to clinical domains. The requirements gathered can be customized and used as guidance for software professionals developing electronic registries for use in various healthcare settings and contexts worldwide.