Leveraging Polio Geographic Information System Platforms in the African Region for Mitigating COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Surveillance Challenges: Viewpoint

Abstract

Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Africa is an urgent public health crisis. Estimated models projected over 150,000 deaths and 4,600,000 hospitalizations in the first year of the disease in the absence of adequate interventions. Therefore, electronic contact tracing and surveillance have critical roles in decreasing COVID-19 transmission; yet, if not conducted properly, these methods can rapidly become a bottleneck for synchronized data collection, case detection, and case management. While the continent is currently reporting relatively low COVID-19 cases, digitized contact tracing mechanisms and surveillance reporting are necessary for standardizing real-time reporting of new chains of infection in order to quickly reverse growing trends and halt the pandemic. Objective This paper aims to describe a COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone app that includes health facility surveillance with a real-time visualization platform. The app was developed by the AFRO (African Regional Office) GIS (geographic information system) Center, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency preparedness and response team. The app was developed through the expertise and experience gained from numerous digital apps that had been developed for polio surveillance and immunization via the WHO’s polio program in the African region. Methods We repurposed the GIS infrastructures of the polio program and the database structure that relies on mobile data collection that is built on the Open Data Kit. We harnessed the technology for visualization of real-time COVID-19 data using dynamic dashboards built on Power BI, ArcGIS Online, and Tableau. The contact tracing app was developed with the pragmatic considerations of COVID-19 peculiarities. The app underwent testing by field surveillance colleagues to meet the requirements of linking contacts to cases and monitoring chains of transmission. The health facility surveillance app was developed from the knowledge and assessment of models of surveillance at the health facility level for other diseases of public health importance. The Integrated Supportive Supervision app was added as an appendage to the pre-existing paper-based surveillance form. These two mobile apps collected information on cases and contact tracing, alongside alert information on COVID-19 reports at the health facility level; the information was linked to visualization platforms in order to enable actionable insights. Results The contact tracing app and platform were piloted between April and June 2020; they were then put to use in Zimbabwe, Benin, Cameroon, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Sudan, and their use has generated some palpable successes with respect to COVID-19 surveillance. However, the COVID-19 health facility–based surveillance app has been used more extensively, as it has been used in 27 countries in the region. Conclusions In light of the above information, this paper was written to give an overview of the app and visualization platform development, app and platform deployment, ease of replicability, and preliminary outcome evaluation of their use in the field. From a regional perspective, integration of contact tracing and surveillance data into one platform provides the AFRO with a more accurate method of monitoring countries’ efforts in their response to COVID-19, while guiding public health decisions and the assessment of risk of COVID-19.

Visualization of Spatial–Temporal Epidemiological Data: A Scoping Review

“…The studies that used a map-style representation (79/114) adopted different strategies: static geographic 2D or 3D maps [14,15,19,20,22,31,33,36,38,[42][43][44]50,75,81,83,88,93,102,104,107,109,117,118,123], dynamic 2D maps [20][21][22]25,61,65,80,85,89,90,94,97], or choropleth maps [17,23,24,27,30,32,34,35,37,40,46,48,49,52,…”

Business Intelligence no apoio à gestão estratégica em saúde: um relato de experiência

“…Thus, it is easier to understand the data and to draw more assertive strategies. 2,4 Among other advantages, the program features case mapping, real-time information sharing, and remote working options 9 . Power BI can be useful in scientific communication by facilitating the visualization of data in scientific journals.…”

“…The "COVID-19 Panel", widely viewed since 2020, is based on this tool and allowed managers agility in combating the disease and optimizing resources. 9,10 A disadvantage of Power BI is the difficulty of programming the databases. However, training, even virtual training, can solve this issue.…”

A Geospatial Donation Platform for COVID-19 and Beyond, Leveraging Location – Based Services and Geofencing

“…According to literature review, it was found that GIS was used to develop applications to visualize the number of COVID-19 patients in each region or area [21], [22], [23], [24], mostly visualized in dashboard, consisting of map, statistics, diagram, and spread of COVID-19 in different areas [28]. The data from this research could be used for treatment management in each area for further preparedness of public health.…”

“…Donators do not have any information to support their decision making on what to donate and how many because the extent of need in each area remains unknown. According to previous studies and literature review, it was found that the current development of geospatial platform for COVID-19 is mostly surveillance and monitoring of the situation in each area [21], [22], [23], [24], including analysis to predict COVID-19 risk [25], [26], [27]. However, geospatial platform for donation management has not been developed yet.…”