Handheld Computers Save Time and Resources,
Improve Data Collection  for HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing Programs

AED-SATELLIFE is working with Tebelopele, a local non-profit organization in Botswana, to improve its data collection and reporting capacity for its voluntary testing and counseling programs and for the "Door-to-Door" campaign funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an agency of the United States government.  Client intake forms are now completed directly on handheld computers (sometimes called personal digital assistants or PDAs) and the collected data is automatically uploaded daily to program databases, eliminating
errors and delays in data collection and reporting.

"Handheld computers have been in use, on a pilot basis, in Tebelopele for two months and early indications are that they have improved the quality of data and efficiency of operation. Full roll out across the organisation has begun and will be completed in the next month."
                                                                 Jan Raats, Executive Director, Tebelopele
                                                                                                                  October 2007

In addition to collecting household and individual information on the handhelds in the "Door to Door"campaign, outreach workers are employing the Global Positioning System (GPS) to record the coordinates of each house they visit so that they can be mapped for future reference.  Workers are also using portable barcode scanners in combination with the handheld computers to ensure that lab
results are accurately matched to households and individuals. 

Because Tebelopele tests over 100,000 people a year, it has the largest data set available in Botswana to track both the epidemic and the outreach efforts to prevent new cases. When dealing with public health, greater data accuracy and faster reporting are important. With AED-SATELLIFE's assistance, the quality of
that data will be greatly improved.

For more information on using handheld computers and mobile devices, please contact us at PDAprojects@healthnet.org

Malaria Spraying Campaign Aided by Mobile Data Collection
 and Mapping in Mozambique

Collecting health data and using it to make policy and resource allocation decisions is an important role of the public health sector. Too often however, inadequate infrastructure and insufficient resources result in inaccurate and incomplete collection of data, faulty aggregation of data, and dilatory transmission of data, seriously impeding the process of analyzing data and issuing timely, actionable reports. The same factors lead to little or no information flowing back to District health personnel on trends observed in the data that they have collected, fostering amon them the misperception that data lacks “power”.

To address these issues, the project partners introduce the use of handheld computers at a District level in the LSDI Malaria Program area. District health personnel received a short training course on the use of the handheld computer and the customized data collection tools developed by AED-SATELLIFE for both routine and survey data. These data collection tools minimized end-user skill requirements and maximized the speed of data capture. The use of geographic positioning  systems  (GPS)  with  the  handheld computers will allow mapping  of malaria control activities, enhancing better resource allocation.

"The most impressive outcome from our work was the reaction of local community leaders to having visual representations of data upon which to based decisions."
                                       Elizabeth Streat, LSDI Coordinator and Lead Researcher

Data collected on household spraying efforts were presented on maps, clearly indicating where dwellings had or had not been sprayed.  Results motivated greater support for the spraying program. Overall there was both an improvement in the quality of the data collected (up to 50% in some areas) and, more dramatically, a great benefit in having data accessible almost immediately after collection. "Using the PDA to collect and provide information in almost real time brought to LSDI another vision in terms of evidence-based decisions to better manage and allocate resources." (Preliminary Project Report, 9/07)

This project activity was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

                               

For more information on using handheld computers and mobile devices, please contact us at PDAprojects@healthnet.org

Use of Handheld Computers in
Routine Health Center Data Reporting
 Shows Dramatic Cost /Benefits Over Paper-Based Methods

Handheld computers (sometimes called personal digital assistants or PDAs) are a key tool in a project underway in Uganda to explore the usefulness of mobile technologies as tools for HMIS data collection and health information dissemination in rural districts. PDAs have been used daily since they were introduced beginning in 2003 to the Uganda Health Information Network, a collaborative project between Uganda Chartered HealthNet and the AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology supported by the International Development Research Center of Canada. To date, health care workers in 174 health centers serving more than one million people in five districts have been trained to use PDAs for routine weekly reporting and to download continuing education and reference material.

Along with sustained improvements in the timeliness and completeness of reporting, project partners wanted to see if the investment in an electronic process was cost-effective.  A recently completed study by a researcher at the Institute of Public Health at Makerere University showed a cost/benefit ratio of 0.911 or 91.1%.  Based on the computation of the costs of ingredients, the study looked at the value of benefits for all uses of the PDA, including data collection, reading of health information messages, provision of knowledge on management, use of organizer functions (clock, calculator, calendar), inventory recording, and writing memos.

This project activity was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

                               


For more information on using handheld computers and mobile devices, please contact us at PDAprojects@healthnet.org

Handheld Computers and GPS Help Illustrate
Bed Net Usage in Uganda

 
It has been estimated that if every African child under five years slept under an insecticide treated mosquito net (ITN), nearly 500,000 child deaths could be prevented every year. Implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), NetMark is a time-limited investment by the United States Agency for Development (USAID) to reduce the burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa by increasing both the supply of ITNs and public demand for them. These goals are achieved primarily through partnerships with commercial companies, national malaria control programs, and national-scale public education and promotional efforts.

To measure the combined impact of its activities in Uganda and to provide a reference point for measuring future progress, NetMark conducted household surveys in November 2000 and October – November 2006. Uganda Chartered HealthNet (UCH), a Ugandan NGO affiliated with the Makerere University Faculty of Medicine, implemented the most recent survey field work with support from the AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information Technology. Interviewers used handheld computers (PDAs) to record responses in the 2006 survey, and collected GPS coordinates for each the 2,000 households interviewed. UCH’s experience using handhelds ensured that any technical problems were quickly solved and did not disrupt survey implementation. Supervisors downloaded data daily and periodically sent it to an FTP site so NetMark researchers could review data as the survey progressed.

Compared to results from the paper-based survey conducted seven years earlier, handheld computers resulted in improved data quality and eliminated the potential for error during data entry of completed questionnaires.

Using handheld computers for data collection in Uganda is feasible and preferable to paper in terms of speed and data quality. Both interviewers and respondents reacted positively toward the tool.  (Survey Report, 2007)

For more information on using handheld computers and mobile devices, please contact us at PDAprojects@healthnet.org