Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

EpiHandy

last updated Sep 27, 2011

Overview

Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2003
Stage: 
No longer active
Income Level of Target Population: 
All income levels

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
Center for International Health Norway, Makerere University Uganda, The Promise Research Consortium

Technology

Technology Used: 
Phones
Summary: 

The EpiHandy tool, a mobile health data collection and record access program enabled by PDAs, helped to mitigate issues resulting from the high costs and inefficiencies of traditional large-scale paper-based surveys.

Key program components: 

EpiHandy was deployed in many countries and by many different organizations since its first release in 2003, and was used in multiyear studies in Uganda, Zambia, and Burkina Faso. In the Uganda study, mobile phones were deployed to participating clinics and Ministry of Health experts trained the local staff on using the open source JavaRosa software to fill and submit medical forms. The data from the forms was transmitted across the standard services available on the local mobile network. EpiHandy yielded positive results during a five-year assessment in which 14 interviewers collected information on breastfeeding habits and child anthropometry in rural areas of eastern Uganda. Outcomes included greatly reduced data entry errors and broad user acceptance, as well as cost effectiveness relative to traditional paper-based surveys, increasing the potential for this already successful solution to scale further.

Additional Information

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