SMS to monitor malaria in remote areas

 
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Region: 
Africa & Middle East
Country: 
Uganda
Partners: 
Uganda Ministry of Health;
Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND);
Earth Institute at Columbia Universitt;
WHO;
Activities: 

This project was made possible through the introduction of malaria rapid diagnostic tests and the availability of wirless communication networks also in remote areas, linking rural health workers to central health services. In November 2009 a RapidSMS reporting system was implemented at more than 140 clinics. The system implementation was aimed at improving data reporting and management and monitoring ACT stock availability. An evaluation of the project showed that the SMS-programme has potential to obtain critical healthcare-related data from remote areas in real time, supporting evidence-based decision-making. While there were still short-comings, timely data availability can help to make supply chain issues and monitoring of malaria diagnosis and treatment more efficient.

Further reading: 

Asiimwe, C., Gelvin, D., Lee, E., Amor, Y.B., Quinto, E, Katureebe, C., Sundaram, L., Bell, D., Berg, M. 2011, Use of an innovative affordable, and open-source short-message serivce-based tool to monitor malaria in remote areas of Uganda, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 85(1):26-33.

[added Sept. 2011]

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