Mobile-based disease surveillance technology has improved response times to notify authorities of malaria outbreaks from four weeks to three minutes
Hewlett Packard (HP), which has implemented the scheme alongside its partners, Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and mobile network provider MASCOM, recently announced the radical improvement which has been made in the first year of the company’s pilot programme.
Due to the quick outbreak identification process, people affected can now receive help faster.
The programme, which was announced last June, equips healthcare workers with mobile devices that collect malaria data and can be viewed in a geographic map of disease transmission.
The map helps to generate more context-based information about outbreaks in order for workers to respond accordingly.
There have been a total of 1,068 real-time notifications and updates on disease patterns to Ministry of Health officials and health care workers through the system so far.
Eighty-nine potential malaria outbreaks have been identified in Botswana’s Chobe region, where the disease surveillance system was first piloted and rolled out.
HP and PING have large-scale expansion plans for the programme including an additional 20 facilities in Botswana with over 100 health workers trained by June 1, and an additional 80 facilities by October 2012.
The focus upon other diseases will begin with multi-drug resistance tuberculosis surveillance in August 2012.
PING also plans to develop a self-training game tutorial to complement the reporting and mapping interface running on the phones. This will empower health care workers to complete self-paced training on the use of the mobile tools.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/social-innovation/ping.html
