mHealth | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

Kendra first connected with us almost a year ago while taking our mHealth online course. She was interning with the USAID Bureau of Global Health, mentored by the eHealth Coordinator of the Office of Health Systems. Having recently returned from Zambia, where she collaborated with ZCHARD and the Zambian Ministry of Health to scale Programme Mwana, an SMS test result delivery system to support early infant diagnosis, Kendra was interested in exploring how integration of mobile devices with public health programs could increase impact.

As a TechChange Alumna now team member, she has led facilitation of TC105: Mobiles for International Development and TC309: Mobile Phones for Public Health, coordinating live events, developing content, case studies and activities, and moderating discussion forum. With a background in global public health and project coordination, she provides content support and management for a variety of TechChange projects, while also supporting overall TechChange operations. Passionate about user centered design, she studies development and design in her free time, aspiring to ultimately improving mobile health and online learning user experience.

Prior to joining the team, Kendra completed an MPH with Boston University, as well as a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida. She also worked in the non-profit sector, supporting the mPowering Frontline Healthworker and mHealth Working Group initiatives with Jhpiego.

Welcome, Kendra!

In honor of World AIDS Day 2014, we celebrate several TechChange alumni who are heroes in the front lines of fighting HIV and AIDS across the world. From their communities in San Francisco, Vietnam, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia, these extraordinary individuals are using mHealth technology, online training for HIV preventing, and more to save lives with HIV awareness campaigns through online trainings and SMS campaigns, Android mobile apps for accurately prescribing antiretroviral medication, and more. Check out the top five ways TechChange alumni are using technology to fight HIV.

1. Encouraging HIV testing and care in Vietnam with mHealth gamification programs
Caroline Francis and her team across FHI 360 Vietnam have launched mHealth pilot programs to encourage HIV testing and care maintenance through gamification with mobile phones. In their programs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, mHealth is a key strategy for FHI 360 “to incentivize health-seeking actions, increase the timeliness of data collection, improve patient communications, and document system-client interactions. MHealth can also facilitate workforce development through task shifting, performance support, and human resources management.”

Check out this video on their “Fansipan Challenge” mHealth pilot program here.

2. Promoting HIV support group and health management classes with SMS reminders
In her blog post on “mHealth: Healthcare Reaching Remote Places with Mobile Phones and SMS”, Reverend Neelley Hicks describes the success of a community health worker’s use of SMS messages to remind HIV+ members of a community in Malawi to attend support group and HIV health management classes. The significance of reaching these program beneficiaries was not small, as “community health workers often must walk miles to find someone only to learn they are away. But the mobile phones stay with the person – making them much easier to reach.”

Mercy-mHealth-United-Methodist-Communications

Mercy (pictured with Maeghan Ray Orton from Medic Mobile) at UMCom workshop in Malawi

3. Scaling HIV Prevention in California via eLearning
A&PI (Asian and Pacific Islander) Wellness Center, a San Francisco-based organization with that started to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis in A&PI communities beginning in the late 1980s, collaborated with Project Inform and TechChange to develop the California Statewide Training and Education Program (CSTEP), a curriculum that sets the standard in HIV treatment and technically and culturally competent training for clinical and non-clinical providers working in the HIV field. The A&PI Wellness Center works to address the health needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or immigration status.

To register for these free online courses on HIV prevention training, please click here.

4. Correctly prescribing HIV antiretrovirals (AVR) drugs with an Android smartphone mobile app in South Africa

To help clinicians to correctly prescribe antiretrovirals, Dr. Musaed Abrahams, an alumnus of our mHealth – Mobile Phones for Public Health online course, has launched a mobile app for managing antriretroviral treatment (ARV) medication in South Africa.

The Aviro HIV mobile app acts as a virtual mentor for clinicians to easily consult for proper ARV (Anti-retroviral) initiation and treatment during the patient consult. Designed for Android and based on the current South African guidelines, it provides real-time, immediate feedback and guidance for the clinician, so that excellent and reliable care can be delivered to every patient. Following a care checklist, it gives clinical prompts aiming to educate and raise the standard of patient care.

Download the Aviro Android app on the Google Play store here.

5. Advocating for reproductive health education in Zambia with SMS
After taking several online courses with TechChange, Priscilla Chomba-Kinywa created a SMS solution called U-Report to promote sex education to prevent HIV in Zambia among youth. She incorporated the feedback from Zambian youth in the process of building out this campaign and program. The first year of the program’s pilot in 2 provinces had 50,000 young people voluntarily sign up and engage the 24/7 trained counselors by asking them questions on HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and other reproductive health issues.

Want to learn how you can use technology to address challenges such as HIV and other global challenges? Enroll in one of our online courses here and get $50 off any course with the coupon code, ENDAIDS2014, before December 5, 2014.

This feedback on mhealth concerns a field mission I undertook in July 2014. I visited one of Handicap International Federation’s HIV and disability projects being implemented in the region of Ziguinchor in the South of Senegal. Like many other organisations represented by colleagues in TechChange’s mHealth course, Handicap International is strongly exploring how mHealth can best fit in and with what we can offer not only to our primary focus on people with different impairments (our main targets), but also to various communities confronted with different issues, be they related to development, relief or emergency settings..

I realised that our project was provided with two android phones from CommCare to collect data as a “pilot activity” (not initially designed in our project, but rather as an add-on to our M&E system and tools). The project M&E officer in charge was supposed to learn about how it works and two project community mobilizers were supposed to collect specific information to feed into the beneficiary and activities database.

What happened with this pilot was quite interesting. Given that there was no specific planning or budget assigned to this seemingly exciting additional activity, and after discussions with CommCare, they graciously provided the project with two phones and basic training to the staff. Project staffs started the process of collecting data, but it didn’t work because there was the phones had no credit. So, they added credit and restarted the process of collecting data. Data were entered and things seemed to be on the right track. Knowing this, the M&E specialist in charge wanted to synchronise the system to see how data looked like. It didn’t work. After another brainstorming, the team learned that they had to set other aspects on the phones so that data can reach to the other end. Furthermore, given that this was an “extra activity”, problem-solving was not that fluid with CommCare as it was not the priority of neither party. And barriers continued, to the point that no one really bothered with whether the phones were useful to the project, to the beneficiaries, to the staff, nor to the system.

A few lessons learned from this minuscule pilot trying to use mobile technologies for data collection (and arguably for other aspects of project management and global development):

If rationales are well thought through at project inception, it would be important to include planning, budget and dedicated human resources for the utilisation of mHealth within a project.
Having “free phones” may not be the best incentive to projects when it is not tied to any specific performance indicators associated to bigger project goals.
Excitement about mHealth is insufficient; there needs to also be interest combined with strong planning and field testing, coupled with systematic follow-up from the mHealth provider. This aligns with what mHealth guest speaker Ray Brunsting told us in the course about the importance of a project preparation phase that regularly iterates and progressively constructs what is needed so that the mobile mechanism works smoothly thereafter.
Careful, regular, and frequent feedback is needed especially when getting an mHealth program is in its initial phases.

But this experiment didn’t deter us to pursue our desire to use mHealth and mainstream disability. We decided to partner with AMREF (France) which has tremendous experience in using mHealth. This project will start shortly and is going to use mHealth in the context of maternal and child health in Senegal. It will bring the expertise of two different organisations for the benefit of mothers and children, through a specific project, planning and budget, and through disability lens.

All this to say that using mobile phones to promote public health is not that straightforward. However, when we attempt to consider lessons learned and good practices from others, it tends to work better. So thanks so much to TechChange, all participants in the mHealth online course, as well as from our great speakers and facilitators for sharing all the mHealth wisdom

Interested in learning more about mHealth pilot programs and successfully scaled projects across the world? Register now for our mHealth online course which runs from November 17 – December 12, 2014.

About Muriel Mac-Seing

Muriel Mac-Seing is an alumna of TechChange’s Spring 2014 mHealth: Mobile Phones for Public Health online course. For the past 12 years, Muriel Mac-Seing has dedicated her work to community health development in Sub-Sahara Africa and South and South-East Asia, in the areas of HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence and disability. Currently, she is the HIV and AIDS/Protection Technical Advisor to Handicap International Federation supporting country missions and national programmes to include disability for universal access to HIV and AIDS and protection services for all. She co-chaired the HIV and Disability Task Group of the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) from 2010 to 2012. Since May 2014, she is also a member of the Human Rights Reference Group at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Trained as a nurse, she served an underprivileged and multiethnic clientele in the regions of Montréal, Canada.

Treating HIV with antriretroviral treatment (ARV) medication can be very challenging, given how complicated it can be to dispense these pills correctly. Especially in remote clinics throughout the world, it can be difficult for clinicians to distribute ARVs because they require customized mixes of medication based on the specific symptoms of individual patients in order to be effective.

Aviro featured on a national news broadcaster in South Africa

We asked Musaed to tell us more about his new mHealth Android app below.

1. What personal experiences of yours inspired this app?

I have worked for Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) for over 6 years, training clinicians throughout Southern Africa on the best practices on HIV Care. Through my experience I quickly recognized some of the challenges nurses and clinicians face day to day with changing guidelines and lack of training resources. I also recognized that many nurses were using technology informally, and were conversant with their mobile technology.

My aim was to create an app that can bridge the training and information gap with the already existing technology – particularly with mobile phones.The Aviro HIV app was created with this goal at the forefront. Providing a mobile tool for doctors and nurses, using technology to simplify the initiation and management of patients on anti-retroviral therapy (ART), with connectivity providing further referral support for complex patients.

2. What impact did the TechChange mHealth online course you took have on designing and launching this app?

This mHealth online course gave me an overview of different components of mhealth and how they interlink – specifically monitoring and evaluation, communication and decision tree support tools which were my interest. I valued most the practical examples/case studies and insights from the developing world and their implementations of mHealth projects, and challenges that they needed to overcome. Although I was already conversant in human-centered design, the HCD-focused workshop in the course rounded out my knowledge in this area while being engaging and informative.

Aviro

3. What exactly went into creating this Aviro mHealth app?

It was a team effort involving those with both HIV technical expertise as well as mobile development. We collaborated with the best medical expertise on HIV including James Nutall, Graeme Meintjes, and Ashraf Coovadia to design treatment algorithms. We incorporated human design thinking principles when working with African digital artist, Jepchumba to do the user experience (UX) design in collaboration with nurses on the ground in South Africa. Funding was provided with a partnership with MTN Foundation, Aviro’s technology partner. In addition, we partnered with nurse and clinician organizations, the Anova Health Institute and Southern African Clinician Society, for testing implementation of the app.

4. How successful has it been so far? (Any metrics you can share?)

We just launched the app at Social Media Week and Southern African Clinicians Society last week and have had over 300 downloads by South African nurses and doctors. we have interest from the SA National Dept of Health in adopting the app nationwide. Currently, we are working on an iPhone/iOS version of the app and will keep updating the app with new versions as we get more downloads and feedback.

Clinicians test Aviro

Download the app here on the Google Play store

About Musaed Abrahams

Musaed has worked and trained in Southern Africa as a HIV Training coordinator of MSF (doctors without borders). With over 5 years experience of coordinating HIV courses for nurses and doctors, with trainings in South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe he has developed innovative educational approaches to medical training.

Interested in mHealth to use mobile phones to improve healthcare delivery? Enroll now in the same course that Musaed took, mHealth – Mobile Phones for Public Health which runs from November 17 – December 12, 2014.

According to GSMA’s Digital Entrepreneurship in Kenya 2014 report, 99% of internet subscribers in Kenya access the internet through mobile devices. Kenya has been the leader in mobile banking, with apps like M-PESA, Zoona, and others. When taking TechChange’s Mobile Phones for Public Health online course with a group of 10 colleagues at PATH, I was curious to learn what mHealth looked like in Kenya and learn what lessons I can apply to my mHealth programs in Bihar, India. As part of my final project for the course, I asked Debjeet Sen, one of my colleagues at PATH based in Kisumu, Kenya, to share his views on the state of mHealth interventions in Kenya.

Like other developing countries, mHealth in Kenya primarily focuses on two core areas:

1. Data collection, where mobile devices replace and/or complement traditional paper-based tools;

2. Behaviour change, where mobile devices are used to disseminate key messages and good practices among communities.

And like any low-resource setting, there are inherent challenges in rolling out mHealth interventions, so it is important to be cognizant of them and develop appropriate counter-strategies.

Community health workers (CHWs) during a mHealth training in Kenya

Here are a few challenges that Debjeet sees mHealth interventions face in Kenya:

Multiple mHealth interventions have remained at the pilot stage

Many mHealth interventions in Kenya have not yet been integrated into larger health and information technology systems due to the absence of a clear scale-up strategy in the pilot project design and a lack of consensus on common software and hardware requirements. Different projects use different handsets with different operating systems for different mobile platforms. Aligning individual mHealth projects with regional and national management information systems (MIS) is necessary, but may not necessarily happen, as mHealth projects often function autonomously. Wherever possible, it is important to integrate mHealth data streams with existing MIS platforms in order to prevent duplication and mixing of data.

Many mHealth projects rely on the use of smartphones

Smartphones can be expensive and beyond the purchasing power of Kenyan government institutions and individuals. Most people continue to rely on low-end phones, which are cheap and widely available.

Scarcity of a reliable power source

Electricity supply in Kenya is unreliable and regular electricity is mostly available only in semi-urban and urban areas. Since graphics-enabled smartphones are highly power-intensive, any mHealth project that relies on smartphones may face challenges if users struggle to keep their phones regularly charged.

However, there are opportunities that can help tackle these mHealth challenges:

Almost universal penetration of cell phones

Kenya has a very strong base for implementing mHealth projects, partly because Kenyans are familiar with the use of mobile phones for functions other than just making and receiving calls. Mobile banking app like M-PESA is used by tens of millions of Kenyans. In fact, many financial transactions in the social sector, such as paying for trainings and workshops, issuing stipends to community health workers (CHWs), and transferring conditional cash transfers are all done through M-PESA. In a way, this extensive use of M-PESA for the social sector is already (indirectly) helping improve mHealth outcomes.

Incentivizing end-users such as CHWs to buy the phones

A common mistake of many mHealth projects is to provide the cell phones for the project as “giveaways.” In turn, this results in less accountability and a lack of ownership among the phone users. Asking CHWs to partially cover the cost of the phones or buy them is a good strategy to create ownership and accountability. This also has ramifications for scale-up and sustainability, as governments in low-resource countries may be unable to cover the entire cost of purchasing cell phones.

Work is underway to develop a plan to coordinate mHealth activities in Kenya

There are plans to align multiple platforms, hardware, and software with a common national strategy and to ensure that data collected from these activities are facilitated to feed into national and regional MIS.

4. Simple smartphone apps.

The simpler smartphone apps have been demonstrated to assist frontline workers such as CHWs in data collection and as job aids to assist them in household visits and group and/or individual counselling. In an environment that faces challenges in literacy rates as well as financial and network connectivity, we cannot simply develop and run any iPhone or Android app. Sometimes, it is important to develop ways to access mHealth tools offline.

Community health workers explore Information for Action app during the field test

In particular, Debjeet discussed his work on the Information for Action app, an innovative app running on the Android platform designed by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa. The app collects information from CHW home visits and immediately turns the collected information into actionable information in the form of a key message or suggested actions that can be shared by CHWs with caregivers. It is a dynamic app because it collects information and provides contextualized key messages and suggested actions on areas of children’s development, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation. The Information for Action app also stores records of individual home visits, which can be used by CHWs to plan for future home visits, as well as uploaded into a central data server/cloud, where supervisors can monitor for quality of home visits.

Currently, a field test of the app is being carried out in Kenya and South Africa to determine its operational feasibility and acceptability among CHWs, their supervisors, and community members receiving home visits from CHWs. Debjeet would be happy to share the app after the field tests are completed.

Debjeet asserted that the TechChange mHealth course has provided him with a structured overview of mHealth, which is a contrast to the way he has generally learned about mHealth through on-the-job experiences. The TechChange course has exposed him to interesting resources, people, and mHealth projects and he wishes to use the learnings from the course in his current projects at PATH

Why learning about mHealth in Kenya is useful for India

Since working in Bihar is quite similar to working in other countries of low resource settings like Kenya, it is helpful to learn about the challenges and strategies of different countries as we develop mHealth programs in Bihar. The PATH team in Bihar provides knowledge management support to a behavior change community mobilization project called Parivartan, which means “transformation”. The knowledge management team is in the process of conceptualizing a mobile based data collection and analysis system for village health sanitation nutrition committee (VHSNC). The committee members would develop effective social mobilization strategies to influence people to attend village health sanitation nutrition day (VHSND) at local primary health centers for health and nutrition related services. We have already started collecting a lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) data through tablets and Kenya’s mHealth lessons definitely help as the fuel to work at per PATH’s technology and healthcare innovation in low and middle income group setting.

The knowledge on mHealth in Kenya which Debjeet has shared will help my team develop its own mHealth strategy in a low-resource setting such as Bihar, India.

If you are interested in learning more about the current state of mHealth, enroll in our upcoming mHealth course, TC309: Mobile Phones for Public Health today.

Alumni bios

Debjeet Sen is a Senior Associate with PATH. He has managed and supported a range of early childhood development (ECD), infant and young child nutrition, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, and maternal and child health projects — primarily in Kenya and Mozambique, but also in DRC, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, and South Africa. His core skills include technical design and management of complex projects, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), behavior change communication (BCC), curriculum development, capacity building and training, organizational development, documentation, and technical research and writing. He is currently based in Kisumu, Kenya. You can connect with Debjeet on LinkedIn.

Pratyaya Mitra is a communication professional with more than 12 years of experience in corporate and social sector. Currently working as communication and documentation officer in PATH Knowledge Management team in Bihar, India. Previously, worked with UNICEF as communication consultant for C4D, advocacy-partnership. Pratyaya worked in corporate communication and as copywriter with Ogilvy and Mather. He works with wide range of communication channels such as, written, audio visual, online, social media and mobile. He plays pivotal role in advocacy, PR and social and mHealth communication strategy to meet the project goal and business development. He did his masters in communication. You can connect with Pratyaya on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.

Before the recent Ebola outbreak, the terms “contact tracing” and “Ebola” were spoken by only a small community of public health specialists consisting of infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists. As total cases of Ebola Virus Disease reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exceed 10,000 across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – almost 5000 of those fatal – these terms are increasingly entering general conversation.

What is Ebola contact tracing?

Rapid contact tracing is essential to the identification and isolation of symptomatic cases of Ebola disease, interrupting secondary transmission, and slowing exponential spread of the virus. It involves identification, documentation, and monitoring of all individuals who have come in contact with a single symptomatic case. In many cases, this is an analogue process of recording data on paper case notification, contact follow-up and field report forms, transporting those to a data entry center, and entering them into an electronic database. In other cases, mobile device can be used in the field for direct data entry into an electronic database.

Contacts have been exposed and are at risk for developing Ebola disease, but have yet to show symptoms. This is where understanding a few basics about Ebola virus and disease is helpful.

Transmission: direct contact with the body fluids of someone, ill or deceased, with symptoms of Ebola disease; or contact with objects contaminated by their body fluids
Symptoms: fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, unexplained bleeding or bruising, and muscle pain developing up to 21 days after exposure to the virus

If a contact develops symptoms within the 21 days of monitoring, they are immediately isolated and contact tracing begins for this new symptomatic case.

Ebola and Contact Tracing

Contact tracing can get complicated, so much so that the CDC has a dedicated program, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, to build US health professional capacity and expertise to do so. A single Ebola case can result in the need to trace numerous contacts. In the early outbreak stages, rapid response is most critical as contact tracing efforts are somewhat manageable. If not contained, exponential transmission can make contact tracing efforts unwieldy, as is the case in the current West Africa Ebola outbreak.

Why is it so difficult to integrate mobile phones for contact tracing?

Several challenges in contact tracing could potentially be addressed with mobile solutions. Given wide geographic spread, remote locations and limited resources, real-time data collection and monitoring with mobile phones could facilitate rapid alert of new cases and contact follow-up. These tools could reduce time lag between data collected in the field and response, and serve as a more relevant basis for assessment and prioritization of control interventions. Given that solutions are developed with the Principles for Digital Development in mind, particularly open standards, open data, and open source software, the use of mobiles could address asynchronous data collection and reporting while lowering barriers to stakeholder collaboration.

Irrespective of the integration of mobile devices, contact tracing in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia presents challenges unique from those in which the methods were developed. How do you identify and quarantine an affected patient effectively in a culture where many objects – from mattresses, toilets and food, to the burden of caring for the ill– are shared? How can reliable data be collected if interviewees intentionally misdirect or misinform surveillance officers in fear of response efforts? Social behavioral change communication could address these challenges, with mobiles playing a role.

Several groups are currently working to address data related issues in the West Africa Ebola outbreak. Notably, the World Health Organization’s Harmonized Ebola Response built on the Ona platform, the Ebola Open Data Jam, and mHero, a collaborative effort partnering IntraHealth International’s iHRIS software and UNICEF’s mobile messaging platform RapidPro. Three initiatives running in parallel leave one questioning if any single effort is actually impacting harmonization?

The challenges hindering rapid integration of mobile solutions are not necessarily unique from larger challenges in implementing mobile solutions, nor aid for that matter. Do you understand the user and ecosystem, did you design for sustainability and scale, and did you leverage opportunities for collaboration? There are suggestions that the WHO and mechanisms for responding to global health challenges are outdated, positioning the West Africa Ebola outbreak as a defining moment in their reevaluation. Perhaps it will also bring new perspective to effective leverage of mobile solutions.

Are you a “healthie”, “techie” or someone in-between interested in the use of technology in global health? Then don’t miss your chance to join course facilitator Kendra Keith and the next cohort of TC309: Mobiles for Public Health starting November 17th, 2014!

Frontline health workers in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are responding to the largest Ebola outbreak in history. To protect themselves and their communities, health workers responding to Ebola need clear, reliable, and timely information on how to detect the disease, prevent its spread, and care for patients.

To respond to this crisis, mPowering Frontline Health Workers and IntraHealth International approached TechChange to deliver a free online webinar series on “Training Health Workers for Ebola—Protection, Detection, and Response”. In these webinars, more than 15 international and in-country health organizations will share information with participants on how to support health workers responding to Ebola. The four one-hour webinars will air on October 21, 23, 28, and 30, each starting at 10:00 am EDT.

The webinars are open to all, and we welcome participation from as diverse an audience as possible. This includes Ministries of Health, health workers, community leaders, program implementers (in-country and international), policy makers, and others. Health professionals from over 15 countries have already signed up, and participants represent government, health care facilities, international NGOs, and civil society, and other sectors.

The presentations and discussions in the webinars will (1) describe how to leverage available resources to train, support, and communicate with frontline health workers and others involved in the direct Ebola response through mobile technology; (2) consider ways to connect implementers to resources, collaborators, and sources of information; and (3) explore how to improve opportunities to enable implementers and programmers to share efforts, collaborate, and avoid duplication.

Webinar schedule:
October 21: Learning and information needs for frontline health workers
October 23: Health system support for frontline health workers
October 28: Community mobilization and interactions with clients
October 30: Data to support effective response and case management

All live sessions will be held from 10.00-11.00am EDT. For those who cannot attend the webinar sessions live, all webinars will be recorded and available here after the air dates.

These webinars are being supported by a 4-week discussion in the Health Information for All (HIFA) forums and we invite you to join and add your views. In addition, IntraHealth and mPowering are launching an online Ebola Resource Center for participants and others to share messages, training content, guidance documents, and other information. This site will also be a place for programs to share information about their work and to connect to others for support, ideas and collaboration. The Ebola Resource Center will launch on October 21.

If you and/or your organization have content on Ebola that you would like to share in the Resource Center, please email Dave Potenziani at Intrahealth at dpotenziani [at] intrahealth [dot] org.

We look forward to meeting you in the webinars & invite you to participate in the conversations in the HIFA forum.

You can find the webinar page and registration information at https://www.techchange.org/live-events/training-health-workers-for-ebola/.

Please share this information on this webinar series information with anyone interested in responding to the Ebola outbreak.

Photo credit: BBC

By Timo Luege, TC103: Tech Tools and Skills for Emergency Management facilitator

As Ebola continues to ravage Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, people from all around the world are working together to stop the disease. In addition to the life saving work of medical staff, logisticians and community organizers, information and communication technology (ICT) is also playing a vital part in supporting their work.

After consulting the TechChange Alumni community and other experts in international development and humanitarian assistance, I pulled together a list of different technologies being applied to manage Ebola. Below are six examples showing how ICT is already making a difference in the current crisis.

1. Tracing outbreaks with mapping and geolocation
Aside from isolating patients in a safe environment, one of the biggest challenges in the Ebola response is tracing all contacts that an infected person has been in touch with. While that is difficult enough in developed countries, imagine how much more difficult it is in countries where you don’t know the names of many of the villages. It’s not very helpful if someone tells you “I come from Bendou” if you don’t know how many villages with that name exist nor where they are. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team has helped this process through creating maps since the beginning of the response.

See: West Africa Ebola Outbreak – Six months of sustained efforts by the OpenStreetMap community.

Map of Monrovia in OpenStreetMap before and after volunteers mapped the city in response to the Ebola crisis. (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap)

In addition, the Standby Task Force is supporting the response by helping to collect, clean and verify data about health facilities in the affected countries. The information will then be published on UN OCHA’s new platform for sharing of humanitarian data.

2. Gathering Ebola information with digital data collection forms
Contact tracing involves interviewing a lot of people and in most cases that means writing information down on paper which then has to be entered into a computer. That process is both slow and prone to errors. According to this Forbes article, US based Magpi, who just won a Kopernik award, is helping organizations working in the Ebola response to replace their paper forms with digital forms that enumerators can fill out using their phones.

Digital forms not only save time and prevent errors when transcribing information, well designed digital forms also contain simple error checking routines such as “you can’t be older than 100 years”.

If you are interested in digital forms, check out the free and open source Kobo Toolbox.

3. Connecting the sick with their relatives using local Wi-Fi networks
Elaine Burroughs, a Save the Children staff member who is also TechChange alumna of Mobiles for International Development, shared that they are using their local Wi-Fi network to connect patients in the isolation ward with the relatives through video calls. Both computers have to be within the same network because local internet connections are too slow. In situations where video calls are not possible, they provide patients with cheap mobile phones so that they can talk with their relatives that way. Elaine added: “Several survivors have told us that what kept them going was being able to speak with their family and not feel so isolated when surrounded by people in hazmat suits.”

4. Sharing and receiving Ebola information via SMS text messages
I have heard about a number of different SMS systems that are currently being set up. Some are mainly to share information, others also to receive information.

mHero is an SMS system specifically designed to share information with health workers. It works with UNICEF’s RapidPro system, a white label version of Kigali-based TextIt which is one of the best SMS communication systems I know. RapidPro is also at the heart of a two-way communication system that is currently being set up by UNICEF, Plan International, and the Scouts.

The IFRC is of course using TERA to share SMS, a system that was developed in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and already used in Sierra Leone during a recent cholera outbreak.

5. Mythbusting for diaspora communities via social media
Social media also has a place, though not as much as some people think. With internet penetration at less than 5 per cent in Liberia and less than 2 per cent in Sierra Leone and Guinea, it is simply not relevant for most people – unlike radio for example. However, all of these countries have huge diasporas. The Liberian diaspora in the US alone is thought to be as many as 450,000 people strong – and they all have access to social media. Experiences from Haiti and the Philippines show that the diaspora is an important information channel for the people living in affected countries. Very often they assume that their relatives in the US or Europe will know more, not least because many don’t trust their own governments to tell the truth.
Social media can play an important role in correcting misinformation and indeed, both the WHO and the CDC are using their social media channels in this way.

6. Supporting translations of Ebola information remotely online
Last but not least, Translators Without Borders is helping NGOs remotely from all over the world to translate posters into local languages.

Low tech does it
As a final word, I’d like to add that while technology can make a real difference we must not forget that very often low tech solutions will be more efficient than high tech solutions – it depends on what is more appropriate for the context. So don’t start an SMS campaign or launch a drone just because you can. It’s not about what you want to do. It’s not about technology. It’s about what’s best for the people we are there to help.

A Summary Infographic

We will be discussing these technology tools, Ebola, and many similar issues in TC103: Tech Tools and Skills for Emergency Management and TC103: mHealth – Mobiles for Public Health. Register by October 31 and save $50 off each of these courses.

Do you have additional examples of how ICT is helping in the Ebola response? Please share them in the comments!

This post originally appeared in Social Media for Good.

About the TC103 facilitator: Timo Luege

After nearly ten years of working as a journalist (online, print and radio), Timo worked four years as a Senior Communications Officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva and Haiti. During this time he also launched the IFRC’s social media activities and wrote the IFRC social media staff guidelines. He then worked as Protection Delegate for International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Liberia before starting to work as a consultant. His clients include UN agencies and NGOs. Among other things, he wrote the UNICEF “Social Media in Emergency Guidelines” and contributed to UNOCHA’s “Humanitarianism in the Network Age”. Over the last year, Timo advised UNHCR- and IFRC-led Shelter Clusters in Myanmar, Mali and most recently the Philippines on Communication and Advocacy. He blogs at Social Media for Good and is the facilitator for the TechChange online course, “Tech Tools & Skills for Emergency Management“.

The field of digital data collection is constantly and rapidly changing, and as we’ve seen in the many iterations of our online courses on Mobiles for International Development and mHealth, Magpi has been a leading innovator in mobile data collection.

That’s why we were not surprised to learn that Magpi has been ranked “Top Digital Data Collection App” by Kopernik, a Rockefeller Foundation and Asia Community Ventures non-profit that ranks technology for development tools in their “Impact Tracker Technology” program.

Rankings for this category were based on scoring for criteria including affordability, usability, rapidity – the “ability to send and receive large volumes of data on a real-time basis”, scalability, and transferability – “flexibility in using the services for different purposes, sectors, and contexts”. This is first time Magpi has appeared on this Kopernik list where the judges tested the tools in the field.

For those who might not yet be familiar with Magpi, it is a user-friendly mobile data collection application that works on various mobile devices. Magpi uses SMS and audio messaging, and is built specifically for organizations with limited IT and financial resources. The company formally known as DataDyne is now Magpi and they have retired the DataDyne name as well as updated their website here, which lists some of the new comprehensive features they’ve recently added. Magpi is led by Joel Selanikio, who is also an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Department of Pediatrics

Congratulations to the Magpi team! We look forward to having you guys join us again in our upcoming online courses!

TC105: Mobiles for International Development alumna, Ivy McCottry is starting a job at AT&T after completing her TechChange M4D course and MBA at Wake Forest University.

Read on to learn how she broke into the mobile technology industry.

What interested you in taking TechChange courses?

I found TechChange when searching for ways to build up my technical background for using technology to improve lives. Through undergraduate Urban and Regional Studies courses, I knew I needed to demonstrate my interest in furthering technology and also be well-versed on current and emerging technical issues. I considered pursuing a tech-based MBA program and completed an MBA internship at a telemedicine startup. Later, I took a course on telemedicine with a clinical focus. While pursuing my MBA, I specifically sought out course work to supplement my business education with technology training.

Ultimately, I chose TechChange’s popular Mobiles for International Development course that offered a unique approach to learning with an international focus on the ubiquity of mobile phones. I saw this course as a great way to become familiar with various mobile initiatives at large, emerging mobile trends and major players in this space including GSMA and others.

What did you find useful from your TechChange course, Mobiles for International Development?

1. Demonstrating interest in technology with a credible certificate

Without an engineering background, the certificate I earned from completing the M4D course, together with my telemedicine internship, validated my interest in technology. The certificate gave credence to my desire to work in the mobile technology industry.

2. Access to high quality guest experts

I knew that the guest experts for the course would be great, but the quality of these experts exceeded my expectations. For example, one of my favorite moments from the Mobiles for International Development online course was during a session with a Motorola phone designer who discussed literacy. I learned from him the importance of understanding customers’ literacy before you design products, and how design can promote literacy with intuitive user experiences. This layer of analysis for thinking about literacy in product development was new and fascinating to me.

3. Diversity of resources and perspectives on global mobile use cases

In a class I took in my MBA program on Emerging Markets (BRICs), we discussed a Harvard case study on M-Pesa, which was covered in the TechChange M4D course in our discussions on mobile money. During this lecture, I was able to offer some different insights on M-Pesa that I had learned from the M4D course discussions on building products for the base of the pyramid. In my lecture, I cited materials on M-Pesa mentioned in the TechChange course and added to the MBA course materials.

What impact has TC105 had on you and your career?

1. Job offers from Fortune 100 companies

After finishing the Mobiles for International Development course, I received job offers from McKesson, which is involved with healthcare, and AT&T. I chose AT&T because of the opportunity to work on mhealth and more broadly, connected communities. It’s my goal to leverage my city planning and federal government experience to create smart/connected communities that improve life and safety matters. I recently joined AT&T to participate in a company leadership development program. In this program, I will be engaged in a variety of roles where I will learn about various aspects of AT&T’s business such as network operations, global products, and so forth.

2. Understanding the mobile industry landscape

Through the M4D course, I was able to better grasp what the drivers are for investment in mobile initiatives. I became very interested in learning about profitability and sustainability issues for mobiles from the perspectives of stakeholders like operators and the needs of mobile users. Additionally, I learned about the various business models being tested in this space and the various public private partnerships in place. This helps me have perspective about operators’ and users’ adoption factors.

3. Instant access to a well-connected global network

When I began my MBA program, I had no touch points with the mobile technology industry. Now, I have instant networks to various players within the field through the well-connected TechChange community.

What advice would you give to students taking TC105 or any TC course?

1. Know what you want to get out of the course.

The more you know precisely what you want to gain from the course, the more you will get out of it as you can prioritize those topics and ask questions that will focus discussions on areas you care about most.

2. Attend live sessions

The “live event” sessions are very helpful. Even though these sessions are recorded and archived, it’s good to sit in live because you can contribute questions in real time and process the context of what’s being presented. You also don’t have to mull over content independently – you can send questions immediately or expand on an idea that has been mentioned. When attending these events, I always made sure the facilitator knew I was there at the session so my private sector interests would be covered in the presentation.

3. Network with guest speakers and course participants

If speakers represent organizations that you want access to, definitely enroll in the course. The access that TechChange provides at this dollar value is unheard of and a great return on investment.

It also helped me to read profiles of other people who were taking the class and alumni as well. I was definitely inspired by the success stories of Carolyn Florey and Trevor Knoblich who advanced in their careers with the help of TechChange courses.

Interested in pursuing a career in mobile technology like Ivy? Enroll now in our Mobiles for International Development online course. Next round starts Monday, May 11.