AN ASSESSMENT OF SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL VILLAGES IN KENYA

Abstract

There has been a growing need in Kenya health sector for an interactive computer-based decision tool that usesboth facts and heuristics to solve difficult decisions making problems, based on knowledge acquired from anexpert. Recent studies have established that expert system in public health sector does not necessarily disseminateindigenous biomedical knowledge but rather a customized expert system could. Hence, a biomedical expertsystem is proposed. The front end was designed using Macromedia Dream Weaver 8.0, Macro Media Flash, Html5,Css, Javascript, and jQuery. The Biomedical expert system logic was made using Php, and the Mysql 5.0 was usedto develop the back end. Pilot study was then done to test the applicability of the system at Jomo KenyattaUniversity of Agriculture and technology. Purposive sampling was applied to collect data on public usage of theknowledgebase system where 330 users participated. Classification accuracy of matching and non-matching websearches of greater than 70 % of the target population was achieved. Specificity was satisfactory for all theoutcomes.