Using Cell Phones for data entry to a Dengue decision support system

Overview Team Application Funding Contact
 

 

Overview

Vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria inflict a terrible and unacceptable burden on humankind and are impediments to socioeconomic development in many parts of the world. There is a desperate need for novel, low-cost solutions to operationally improve prevention and control of these and other infectious diseases in resource-constrained environments. We propose to expand a computer-based Dengue Decision Support System (DDSS), which is currently being developed in collaboration between Colorado State University and academic and public health institutions in Mexico, to support the use of cell phones for field capture and rapid transfer of data to a central DDSS database. Use of cell phones for this purpose is appropriate for dengue because it primarily is an urban disease and therefore occurs in environments likely to have good cell phone coverage in developing countries. Compared to laptops or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cell phones are less expensive and also eliminate the need for physical means of data transmission via USB flash drives etc. Use of cell phones exploits existing communications infrastructure and also introduces near real time monitoring and potential for rapid feedback to field data collectors. The project is a collaborative effort between Colorado State University (CSU), Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (UAY), Merida, Mexico, and Servicios de Salud de Yucatan (SSY), Merida, Mexico.

 

Aims

  1. Develop software that allows data entry screens for mosquito vector-related data on cell phones.
  2. Operationally field test software for capture and transmission of mosquito vector-related data in Merida to a central DDSS database maintained at UAY.

 

 

 

 

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