Doctor Selanikio says he first recognized a need when he worked for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The paper-based way that health workers collected public health information was slow. Analysis of the information could take more than a year.
Doctor Selanikio recognized that handheld computers could improve this situation. For example, they could produce better and faster responses to outbreaks of disease.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Doctor Selanikio and Rosa Donna started DataDyne.org in two thousand three. DataDyne is a nonprofit organization that works to provide sustainable information technologies in poor areas.
The United Nations Foundation and the Vodaphone Foundation provided financial help to develop an open-source data collection tool. The software is called EpiSurveyor. It works much faster than paper-based information collection. EpiSurveyor is free of charge and can be downloaded onto mobile devices.
Doctor Selanikio says there are no barriers to its use.
JOEL SELANIKIO: "Instead of collecting data today to plan for a campaign next year, changing from that to collecting data today to plan for what we do tomorrow, that is a pretty radical change."
The software can be used with any Web browser and requires no special training. DataDyne’s Web site calls it the most widely used health software in the world.
For example, in Zambia and Kenya, EpiSurveyor has made it easier to organize campaigns to vaccinate children against measles. The software has been used as part of a vaccination program that has greatly reduced measles deaths in Africa. EpiSurveyor has also been used in efforts to fight H.I.V. and to help contain an outbreak of polio.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25