Introduction of Mobile Health Tools to Support Ebola Surveillance and Contact Tracing in Guinea

Sacks, Jilian A.; Zehe, Elizabeth; Redick, Cindil; Bah, Alhoussaine; Cowger, Kai; Camara, Mamady; Diallo, Aboubacar; Gigo, Abdel Nasser Iro; Dhillon, Rami; Liu, Anne

doi:10.9745/ghsp-d-15-00207

Cited by 106 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…During the crisis, several low-tech solutions were developed to provide health workers in Guinea with basic surveillance and communication tools, supported by low-tech, flip-phone telehealth solutions. These solutions were a far cry from the more advanced user experience platforms on today's smartphones, but in resource-constrained environments, they were utterly transformational [21].…”

Section: What Can Be Done To Rectify Digital Injustice?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Aren't Our Digital Solutions Working for Everyone?

Winkle

Carpenter

Moscucci

2017

AMA Journal of Ethics

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The article explores a digital injustice that is occurring across the country: that digital solutions intended to increase health care access and quality often neglect those that need them most. It further shows that when it comes to digital innovation, health care professionals and technology companies rarely have any incentives to focus on underserved populations. Nevertheless, we argue that the technologies that are leaving these communities behind are the same ones that can best support them. The key is in leveraging these technologies with: (a) design features that accommodate various levels of technological proficiency (eliteracy), (b) tech-enabled community health workers and navigators who can function as liaisons between patients and clinicians, and (c) analytics and customer relationship management tools that enable health care professionals and support networks to provide the right interventions to the right patients. Finally, we argue that community health care workers will need to be incentivized to play a larger role in building and adopting innovations targeting the underserved. Narrative: Heart Failure and the Failure of Remote Monitoring Jeremy lives in a small subsidized housing development with his mother and three sisters. At 52, he struggles with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. This year alone, he has visited the emergency department four separate times. Luckily, a nearby hospital has recently been focusing on reducing readmission rates for heart failure in response to increasing incentives related to value-based care. The hospital is exploring promising technologies that might help Jeremy: inexpensive remote monitoring devices that are connected wirelessly to a broadband router through Bluetooth ® . The solutions require Jeremy to use a scale and arm blood pressure cuff to record daily metrics that are sent wirelessly to his cardiologist. The idea is that, if clinicians can monitor Jeremy on a real-time basis, they can evaluate his health to see if he is deteriorating or stable. They can then use this information to proactively schedule an appointment or to make a medication adjustment. The solution, like many designed to prevent costly emergency visits or readmissions postdischarge, is considered to be integral in bending the cost curve and improving health. The problem is that none of these solutions are working. Jeremy is only becoming sicker and more frustrated. He lives in a home where wireless

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Section: What Can Be Done To Rectify Digital Injustice?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Aren't Our Digital Solutions Working for Everyone?

Winkle

Carpenter

Moscucci

2017

AMA Journal of Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…org/) are evidence of how SMS mobile-phones or internet-based technology can serve to help those even in remote or rural locations [16,18]. Radar, mobile and web-based solutions given to policy makers, service providers, and the public can provide timely information dissemination, affordable and effective ways to understand and engage with marginalized o communities [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, in strengthening Aedes mosquito and great-apes and treatment care delivery or effective response strategy in these recent epidemics through various IT applications [6,18]. For example Zika epidemics-related Twitter incidence showed that User-generated contents sites were preferred direct information channels rather than those of the government authorities including societal impact of the outbreak; government, public and private sector, and general public responses to the outbreak; pregnancy negative health consequences related to pregnant women and babies outcomes, microcephaly and neurological syndrome; transmission routes; and new case reports [3,5,9,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Technology and Mobile Applications Impact on Zika and Ebola Epidemics Data Sharing and Emergency Response

Tambo¹,

M²,

Cf³

et al. 2017

J Health Med Inform

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Increasing diversified world, era of international power diffusion and regionalisation as the world muddles through travel and trade to climate change requires promoting a more cohesive global regime to ameliorate the deficiencies in local and global 2013-2015 and 2015-2016 Ebola and Zika virus epidemics public health emergency of international concern respectively. Zika epidemics devastating and complex complications exposed the flaws in the global surveillance architecture to deal with cross-border health pandemics prevention and containment. This paper examines trade-off between technology-based data access and dissemination, Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemics complications and digital implications in care delivery solutions in pre-, during and post epidemics response and rebuilding. Our findings showed that IT-based health informatics and mobile applications are evolving and minimum global standards to open access and sharing of relevant epidemics data and information on risk communication. Public awareness and alertness, health promotion and education, counselling and guidelines on integrated syndrome surveillance and response were the most common goals and objectives during viral epidemics reduce and avert further transmission. The uses in healthcare services delivery, management, and planning was also documented and have played a critical role in raising awareness EVD and ZIKV travel restriction and delay pregnancy to women at reproductive age, effective use of personal protective equipment and cultural practices against EVD and ZIKV infections spread. Importantly, IT-based enhanced frontline improved collaborative data sharing and communication, coordinated response and recovery. The efficiency of IT-based data and information sharing and communication practices is of critical benefits for evidence informed early warning, social mobilization, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation capabilities. Mobile-based applications innovations during Zika and Ebola epidemics were very crucial for better evidence-based local and global preparedness and solutions to prevent and control epidemics impacts, promote shared benefits and economic growth.

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“…In Guinea, smartphones were used to communicate real-time surveillance data for contact tracing and case identification during the 2014 West Africa EVD outbreak [9]. Given the surge in global cell phone usage and the increasing popularity of cell phone-based epidemiological surveillance more research is needed to explore its efficiency and community uptake.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regression Modelling and Analysis of Cell phone-Based Syndromic Surveillance Data for Ebola in Sierra Leone

Kangbai¹

2016

J Trop Dis

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Aim: To determine the out degree centrality for multivariate analysis, examine the demographic differences and characteristics of callers who make more calls, and determine callers who are more likely to make at least one positive Ebola call. Methods:Surveillance data for 393 suspected Ebola cases (192 males, 201 females) were collected from October 23, 2014 to June 28, 2015 using cell phone technology. UCINET and Net Draw software were used to determine the out degree centrality used for multivariate analysis. Poisson and logistic regression analyses were used to do multivariable analysis.Result: Women (AOR=0.33, 95% CI [0.14, 0.81]) was associated with decreased odds of making at least one positive Ebola surveillance call compared to men. Women (IR= 0.63, 95% CI [0.49, 0.82]) was also associated with making fewer Ebola surveillance calls compared to men. Conclusion:This study shows that the combination of cell phone technology with user-friendly and open-source social network software such as UCINET and Net draw will provide an important adjunct to the traditional measures of epidemiologic surveillance.

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Introduction of Mobile Health Tools to Support Ebola Surveillance and Contact Tracing in Guinea

Cited by 106 publications

References 7 publications

Why Aren't Our Digital Solutions Working for Everyone?

Why Aren't Our Digital Solutions Working for Everyone?

Digital Technology and Mobile Applications Impact on Zika and Ebola Epidemics Data Sharing and Emergency Response

Regression Modelling and Analysis of Cell phone-Based Syndromic Surveillance Data for Ebola in Sierra Leone

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