Addis Continental Institute of Public Health/Tulane University

 

Addis Continental Institute of Public Health (AC-IPH) is an independent center of excellence for public health research and training, which provides technical services and training in major health issues in Africa. Tulane University is one of the most highly regarded research universities in the United States, which offers degrees in various specializations including public health and tropical medicine. AC-IPH is working in collaboration with Tulane to establish the "Malaria Epidemic Detection Sentinel Surveillance System", a project aimed at providing high quality data on clinical malaria incidence, conduct data quality assurance and contribute for better use of surveillance data in the malaria control and prevention with peculiar emphasis to epidemic detection and containment in various catchment areas in Ethiopia.

Challenges

  • Manual forms were used to capture data from Health Posts, which results in incompleteness of data and inadequate recording
  • Lack of ownership of the project at the health facilities (less accountability and responsibility of the staffs in the health centers) and high demand for incentives
  • Manage health facilities and their staff that come under the Malaria Surveillance project
  • Faster and easier ways to analyse data from the HPs
  • Identify and manage malaria epidemic in remote areas

Our Solution

  • Apposit developed a mobile solution to allow remote health facilities to send in weekly reports, and make it available for analysis in real-time through an online management portal.
  • The system provides data validation as well as reminders to health extension workers to submit reports on time, and sends airtime credit to incentivise timely submission.
  • It will also send automatic notifications to the relevant health professionals when malaria epidemic thresholds have been breached. This will allow the relevant parties to respond quickly and dedicate resources to outbreaks in the country.
  • The system also provides the ability to manage information about the health facilities, staff and GPS coordinates. Head office staff can send out SMS announcements to selected users or user groups through the portal, for quick broadcasting of information.

 The Results

  • The system was used across 150 health facilities in Ethiopia to gather critical information useful in the prevention and control for malaria.
  • Threshold alerts by SMS and email to concerned authorities helped to identify several possible outbreaks of the epidemic, which resulted in timely intervention and management.
  • Easy to use screens help in managing the Health Facility data including GPS coordinates.
  • ACIPH is planning to expand the scope of the system to help them with Malaria Drug Management and Quality Assurance.

Client Testimonials

Apposit was featured in the AC-IPH Newsletter dated July 2011.