MERL Tech DC 2019

Using technology in remote, rural areas is advancing global health, but still comes with challenges. During this session Medic Mobile is teaming up with Vitamin Angels to discuss examples of community level mobile data collection tools and how to make data relevant, timely and useful for community health workers and rural organizations.

First, Medic Mobile will discuss how the use of a customized app by Community Health workers (CHWs) has played a significant role on how they deliver services in the community. Technology, especially mobile technology has been seen as a key towards real time data gathering to support timely decision making. The Medic Mobile (MM) App supports CHWs daily decision making through tasks, reminders, and the ability to access information on the go, regardless of connectivity. MM believes data can improve quality of service for CHWs. However, currently, some of this data is known to be unusable due to various issues. On-the-ground limitations impact how often CHW’s data is uploaded, with up to 20% of CHWs not submitting their data on a monthly basis. Although a CHW’s individual data may be current, supervisors and programme managers can’t access that information until synchronized. The result is that they may make programmatic decisions based on incomplete or outdated information, hampering the ability to respond to challenges. Thus, data timeliness presents a unique challenge to others who may wish to do work in similar contexts.

Then, Vitamin Angels (VA) will share how the use of technology has allowed the expansion of their monitoring system in 20 countries, with 30 monitors routinely sending data on partner organizations serving hard-to-reach beneficiaries. VA utilizes ONA plus ODK Collect tools to collect and store data on mobile devices; and R to manage and analyze data. Although these technologies have allowed VA to greatly expand its own use of the data, making results accessible to its partners in a timely and meaningful way has proved difficult. VA will discuss different mechanisms that have been piloted for sharing real-time data and tools for performance improvement, including the use of ONA to create basic result summaries and a job aid.