Authors

Y Nalule⁸; A Alemayehu³; N Dhanani⁸; M French⁸; S JemuK MohammedE MuhekiO Ndayishimiye²; G Ortu¹; E RuberanzizaJ Whitton⁸;  ¹ Malaria Consortium;  ² Ministry of Health, Burundi;  ³ Ministry of Health, Ethiopia;  ⁴ Ministry of Health, Malawi, Malawi;  ⁵ Ministry of Health, Rwanda, Rwanda;  ⁶ Ministry of Health, Uganda, Uganda;  ⁷ Ministry of Health, Zanzibar, Tanzania;  ⁸ Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Imperial College

Discussion

Current disease distribution maps coupled with routine disease monitoring & evaluation data are crucial to design, plan & guide disease control programs. Phone data collection has been suggested as a favourable alternative to the paper based system. Countrywide Schistosomiasis & Soil Transmitted Helminth mapping in Rwanda, Burundi & Ethiopia and treatment coverage validation post-mass drug administration in Uganda, Zanzibar & Malawi were conducted using phone data collection systems. Pros to this method included automatic unique ID code generation & installation of accuracy checks during the form construction, simultaneous data collection & entry in the field saving time & cost of recruiting data entry staff and immediate uploading to a central database combined with real time data visualisation which enabled data errors to be spotted & corrected by respective teams while still in the field. However, Kato Katz & CCA techniques made data entry by the glove wearing technicians challenging. Other limitations included unreliability of internet for uploading, prolonged training time, poor phone management necessitating use of paper backups, & country concerns over data ownership due to location of storage server. Overall, using phones has the potential for improving data collection accuracy & precision while saving time & cost but is not yet robust or versatile enough to completely do away with paper forms.