Shaping the future: Our strategy for research and innovation in humanitarian response.
Survivors of sexual violence deserve timely and high-quality forensic examination, evidence collection, and documentation as part of comprehensive care. However, in many countries, the quality of medical-legal documentation is severely limited. MediCapt is an innovative dig-ital application that enables clinicians to document forensic medical evidence as well as cap-ture and securely store forensic photographs of injuries. This study evaluated the effectiveness and usability of MediCapt to document forensic medical evidence of sexual violence.
This mixed-methods evaluation involved key-informant interviews, usability questionnaires, and forensic record reviews. Participants included clinicians, medical records personnel, information technology personnel, and health facility administrators, as well as law enforce-ment and legal professionals in Kenya.
The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) data quality checklist found that using MediCapt led to significantly higher data-quality scores compared to paper-based forms. MediCapt forms scored higher on 23 of 26 checklist items. While a wide difference in quality was seen among paper-based forms, MediCapt appeared to both standardize and improve quality of documentation across sites. MediCapt strengths included data security and confidentiality, accuracy and efficiency, and supplemental documentation with photography. Weaknesses included infrastructure challenges, required technological proficiencies, and time to learn the new system. Although it is early to assess the impact of MediCapt on prosecutions, providers and law and justice sector professionals were optimistic about its usefulness. They identified MediCapt as appropriate for use with survivors of sexual violence and reported MediCapt’s legibility and photography features had already been commended by the court.
MediCapt was well-received across all sectors, its use was perceived as feasible and sus-tainable, and it significantly improved the quality of collected forensic data. It is anticipated this improvement in forensic documentation will increase successful prosecutions, strengthen accountability for perpetrators, and improve justice for survivors.
You are seeing this because you are using a browser that is not supported. The Elrha website is built using modern technology and standards. We recommend upgrading your browser with one of the following to properly view our website:
Windows MacPlease note that this is not an exhaustive list of browsers. We also do not intend to recommend a particular manufacturer's browser over another's; only to suggest upgrading to a browser version that is compliant with current standards to give you the best and most secure browsing experience.