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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: The Datadyne Group
Focus of activity - Technology
Year the initiative began (yyyy) - 2003
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Define the innovation - What is the main focus (product, services, etc) of your innovation? Who are the primary beneficiaries? How does it make health and/or health care more affordable, accessible, and simpler to achieve/use? How does it differ from what currently exists in the market? Most people would be surprised to find that in the 21 century the vast majority of health data gathered in developing countries is still collected on paper, without the use of computers. And this is despite the fact that data collection on highly portable handheld computers has been technically possible for several years, with demonstrated advantages including increased speed and quality and decreased cost.
The possibilities have been here for years, yet many developing countries have not been able to take advantage of use of modern ICT. So why haven’t handheld computers been widely used for data collection? The answer is not in the hardware – like all electronics, handhelds get better, faster, and cheaper every year – but rather in the software. The currently available software to put questionnaires onto a handheld and transfer collected data back to a desktop computer is complicated enough to require computer programming skills. Prices for such software can run in the thousands, and with the cost of a computer the ultimate cost is typically tens of thousands of dollars. Per project. Clearly this cost and complexity are a substantial barrier to adoption of the technology – and as with data collection in general, the smaller the program the higher the relative barrier. The DataDyne EpiSurveyor project is lowering the barriers to collection of high-quality data by creating inexpensive, easy-to-use software for data collection on handhelds: if the cost and difficulty of collecting data are drastically reduced, data is more likely to be collected. EpiSurveyor puts the tools and information in the hands of local clinincians to help them collect and analyse data on their communities. It does this without the need for expensive technology or advanced programing. Context for Disruption: - Describe how your innovation is transforming traditional health or related systems in the short and long term. The EpiSurveyor project brings high quality data collection within reach of developing country public health by creating free, open-source software that focuses on affordable, supportable off-the-shelf hardware including PDAs and cell phones, addresses the need for data by making it easier to collect, analyze, and share, and most importantly moves the center-of-development to the developing countries themselves to extend the benefits of modern ICT to places it has never been used, and to health programs that could never afford it before.
At the heart of the EpiSurveyor Project is DataDyne's own software, EpiSurveyor. EpiSurveyor is a suite of software applications created by the DataDyne Group. EpiSurveyor incorporates a Windows-based "Designer" program for the creation of surveys (or an importation from CDC's Epi Info), and a Palm OS-based "Engine" that uses surveys created in Designer to collect data in the field. EpiSurveyor enables the use of those instruments to collect data on a Palm handheld computer and then transfer it back to the desktop for analysis. Data collected with EpiSurveyor on a PDA can be exported to several platforms: Microsoft Excel, EpiInfo, and Microsoft Access. Both the “Designer” program and “Engine” assume no technical background, no programming skill, and are made to be "word-processor easy" to use. EpiSurveyor is an open-source model allowing the public health community to adapt and modify the software. EpiSurveyor is also free and available for download, along with a comprehensive user manual on the DataDyne website. Delivery Model - How does your innovation reach its target populations? What mechanism(s) (e.g., communications, distribution channels, etc.) do you have in place? What is your current market penetration? How do you measure this? EpiSurveyor puts the tools for efficient public health data collection and analysis completely into the hands of developing country health practitioners themselves; making them full partners in further development. With EpiSurveyor, public health workers in developing country programs can take control of their own data collection, monitoring, surveillance, and assessment activities.
DataDyne’s goal is to train in country health workers and make the tools they need readily available to them so that they themselves are in control. EpiSurveyor eliminates the need for costly, complex software and expensive foreign consultants; it effectively cuts out the middleman. As previously mentioned, EpiSurveyor also utilizes open-source models to allow anyone with the programming skills to contribute/modify/improve the software. Through a 3 country pilot program for EpiSurveyor under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), and in collaboration with Center for Disease Control (CDC), DataDyne has been able to train health workers in Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Zambia in the use of EpiSurveyor. The pilot program has been a great success, with health data flowing in each of the three countries. The team leaders from the three countries have reported a wide variety of uses for EpiSurveyor in the field, including but not limited to disease surveillance, clinic monitoring, and immunization campaign tracking. As a result of the success of the EpiSurveyor pilot, DataDyne has plans to further expand in 2007-08 and train health officers in all of the remaining sub-Saharan Africa countries, a total of approximately 800 professionals supervising all government clinics in each country. EpiSurveyor has also been adopted by the WHO African Regional Office as a standard. Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your disruptive innovation model possible? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. DataDyne has been fortunate to work with a variety of organizations in both the development and the implementation of the EpiSurveyor Project. An initial grant from the World Bank began the development of EpiSurveyor. The UN Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation have supplied funding and support for the pilot and further expansion of EpiSurveyor. The CDC and WHO have been collaborative partners. Consulting programmers have also been essential to the continuing development of EpiSurveyor. On the ground representatives from the MOH are implementing the project by using it for day to day clinical surveys and reporting.
Financial Model - Describe the financial model for your innovation. What percentage, if any, of the total operating costs does earned income (from products, services, or other fees) represent? As the stages of the project have evolved, so has the financial model. The DataDyne Group is in the process of achieving 501(c)(3) not for profit status. As of now, however, funding for EpiSurveyor is foundation grant based.
Our fixed expenses are limited to overhead costs and staff: 2 Directors, 1 Admin.
Effectiveness - What has been the measurable impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? The effectiveness of EpiSurveyor can be measured, most importantly, by the flow of data. The three pilot countries (Burkina Faso, Kenya, Zambia) have given an opportunity to learn lessons in a limited areana, address problems, and promote successful strategies before the wider rollout. EpiSurveyor has proven very useful for clinical supervision. One indicator of the impact and importance of EpiSurvyeor is its adoption as a standard by adopted by the WHO African Regional Office. This will enable literally thousands of public health officials in Africa and elsewhere – who are charged with promoting the health and well-being of millions of the planet’s poorest people – to have a clearer knowledge of priorities, successes, problems, and the path ahead than they do today.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. The next three years will be devoted to expanding EpiSurveyor utilization in Sub-Saharan Africa, further development of EpiSurveyor, and promoting EpiSurveyor for other projects.
As EpiSurveyor is being rapidly adopted as a method for clinical surveillance and data collection in Sub-Saharan Africa, DataDyne understands and wants to respond to the need for further EpiSurvyeor software development. In the coming years DataDyne has identified several area for development of EpiSurveyor. Further developments including, porting enabling use of EpiSurveyor on mobile phones, establishing through EpiSurveyor a continuing education program that via EpiSurveyor automatically gives the user updates and articles of interest, as well as other learning tools. DataDyne hopes to work with Google and the WHO to develop GPS/GIS functionaliy for EpiSurveyor.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. Dr. Joel Selanikio always asks why. “Why”, he asked after years of working with handheld computers and technology in the developing world, “can’t we create software that would allow anyone to use this technology? Why can’t it be as easy as word-processing? Why can’t it be free?” With only an initial $50,000 grant, and his savings, but with a passion for the idea of making a unique contribution to public health, he quit his job with the Public Health Service and devoted himself to EpiSurveyor.
With his partner, Rose Donna an ICT consultant, they formed the Datadyne Group. Datadyne's focus is the promotion of ICT in the international public health arena. Under this umbrella the EpiSurveyor project was formed and has evolved to its present implementation. Contact Information:
Rose Donna
Director/Partner The Datadyne Group (Business) rose@datadyne.org 1804 Vernon St., NW Washington, DC 20009 United States Tel: 202-470-0810 Fax: 240-465-0280 Website: www.datadyne.org Discussions about this entry |
The EpiSurveyor Project: Lowering the Barriers and Raising the Bar for Data Collection
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