MediCapt Toolkit Consultant Needed

Role Description

In 2011, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) launched its Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones to confront impunity for widespread sexual violence – used as both a weapon of war and a common crime. Rare cases that made it to court often failed because of insufficient evidence to support survivors’ allegations. In that context, PHR saw medical professionals as powerful change agents and created an initiative to enhance collaboration between medical and legal professionals to collect, document, and analyze forensic evidence to hold perpetrators accountable, and to improve medical care and access to justice for survivors. PHR has been working with doctors, nurses, trauma counsellors, police officers, lawyers, and judges in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to develop comprehensive, standardized methods for collecting forensic evidence of sexual violence to increase the likelihood of effective and successful investigations and prosecutions of these crimes.

But health facilities and police stations using paper-based forms often lack proper storage for secure preservation of evidence or officials encounter difficulties traveling distances to transmit or retrieve evidence due to poor roads or lack of access to vehicles, among other complicating factors.

To address these challenges and to leverage mobile phone penetration even in the most resource-constrained environments, PHR has been developing a high-tech solution called MediCapt, a mobile application to help clinicians document forensic evidence of sexual violence during a patient encounter. This app converts a standardized medical intake form to a digital platform and combines it with a secure mobile camera to facilitate forensic photography. Clinicians can use the app to compile evidence, photograph survivors’ injuries, and securely transmit the data to police, lawyers, and judges involved in prosecuting these crimes. Digitizing these forms minimizes the chances of loss, tampering, or theft of medical evidence, while preserving chain of custody.

Our partners in the DRC and Kenya see MediCapt as a solution for yielding stronger evidence, preserving chain of custody, and improving data security and privacy. Among its key features, MediCapt includes sophisticated encryption, cloud data storage, high fidelity to chain of custody standards, and tamper-proof metadata. Significantly, the Android-based app is designed to securely collect data in conflict zones, as well as remote locations where internet connectivity and/or wireless data transmission is limited. PHR has been collaborating with clinicians in the DRC and Kenya to improve MediCapt’s features (offline printing, secure photo capture capacity, and back-end review for quality improvement and assurance). We have also been working with health care facilities to integrate the app into clinical workflows and co-developed implementation protocols. We went “live” with patients in Naivasha, Kenya in 2018 and we will soon pilot with patients for the first time in the DRC.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is seeking a technological consultant to support MediCapt in the DRC. The consultant will serve as the technological expert for MediCapt in the DRC and support project management, working in close coordination with PHR staff, hospital administrators, end users, the MediCapt technological consultant in Kenya, and other partners.

Reports to: Director, Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones

MediCapt Toolkit:

MediCapt is an award-winning application developed by PHR that enables clinicians to document medical evidence of sexual violence cases digitally, capture forensic photographs, and store them securely. Clinician end users are currently using MediCapt with sexual violence survivors in Kenya and soon in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

PHR is developing and implementing a scaling strategy to grow the MediCapt project in partnership with international organizations, humanitarian organizations, and governments. A key piece of the scaling strategy is the MediCapt Toolkit, which is the suite of materials needed to implement the project. The MediCapt Toolkit includes:

• The MediCapt user manual
• Training documents (for MediCapt training and forensic photography training)
  • This will include final versions of both PowerPoint slides for these trainings and a Facilitators Guide outlining the training modules
• M&E tools and plan
• Troubleshooting documents
• Institutional policies and procedures
• Briefs and resources
• Fact sheets
• Tech documentation (The documentation of this work will be led by the MediCapt Technical Project Manager and the Tech Advisory Board as a separate but related project)

The objective of the MediCapt Toolkit is to have final versions of all materials needed to implement the MediCapt project. As part of the MediCapt scaling strategy, PHR anticipates that other organizations will implement the project and the Toolkit will be the one-stop shop for all MediCapt materials. The MediCapt Toolkit will be published on the PHR website in English and French in November 2021 to accompany the open-source code of the application.

The technological consultant will lead the refinement and finalization of the MediCapt Toolkit.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as lead on the MediCapt Toolkit project.
• Conduct an assessment of the current materials, identify gaps and areas for improvement, and develop a plan for completing the project. This will also include researching other organizations’ project toolkits to learn and improve on the current materials.
• Finalize the MediCapt Toolkit and ensure the materials are ready for publication.
• Lead meetings with PHR staff and consultants to coordinate the project and participate in regular calls with the PHR team.
• Complete four key deliverables:

Qualifications and Skills

• Experience in  developing tools, materials, programming, education, or research to address sexual and gender-based violence;
• Ability to adjust and create tools;
• Pro-activity and ability to work independently;
• Excellent project manager, flexible and skilled in executing multiple tasks, managing work plans and budgets, and working with diverse groups of stakeholders across multiple global teams;
• Superb oral and written communication skills in English;
• Experience working on tech-related global health
• Ability to produce clear written products in English with minimal editing, French-language skill a plus.

To Apply

Please combine your cover letter and resume as a pdf or Word doc and send it to resumes@phr.org. Indicate your “Last Name/First Name, MediCapt Toolkit Consultant” in the email subject line.

A complete application consists of:

• A thoughtful cover letter explaining why you are qualified for/interested in the MediCapt Toolkit Consultant position with PHR.  The cover letter should include a cost proposal and proposed timeline.
• Resume/Curriculum Vitae.

Only complete applications in the format requested will be considered.

All details on: https://phr.org/about/jobs/medicapt-toolkit-consultant/