Fighting a moving target: Leapfrogging to new information systems for malaria vector monitoring and control

, ,
1 Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
2 Centro de Malária e Doenças Tropicais, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portuga
3 Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
4 Department of Entomology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.753v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Bioinformatics, Entomology, Epidemiology, Global Health
Keywords
mHealth, Malaria, Health information systems
Copyright
© 2014 Braganca et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Braganca M, de Sousa B, Charlwood JD. 2014. Fighting a moving target: Leapfrogging to new information systems for malaria vector monitoring and control. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e753v1

Abstract

In order to adapt control efforts to the moving target of malaria, new ways of rapidly processing and using data are required to produce usable information. Portable electronic devices with software applications, collectively known as mHealth, are increasingly used to assist health services and manage patient information. Here we describe the development of an mHealth system, using mobile phones, for data collection and analysis in resource-constrained environments. The system overcomes many of the difficulties presented by other mHealth systems. An asynchronous, Internet connection-independent data collection system, similar to web-based architecture, is proposed. Reporting and advanced statistical and epidemiological analysis, with external data integration, such as environmental datasets, is demonstrated by a pilot assessment of the system in Mozambique. We argue that this technology can provide the entomological and epidemiological information needed for sensible decision-making processes and the development of public health policies regarding malaria control.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Dataset of Linga Linga pilot study

The following dataset is the result of merging external datasets by automation processes of our system scripts.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.753v1/supp-1