RTI Completes Training in Zimbabwe for New Disease Surveillance System

On 12 May 2011, 25 participants from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MOHCW) in Zimbabwe competed training in the use of their new, mobile-phone-based disease surveillance system. The system, developed by RTI using enhanced JavaROSA software, an Open Data Kit (ODK) Aggregate server, FrontlineSMS server, and a custom PHP script, enables health workers to submit disease reports from remote locations. The handset application can store data locally and can transmit data automatically using GPRS or SMS text messaging. This automatic fall-back feature enables the system to try the least expensive data transmission mechanism first. Data received by the ODK Aggregate server is exported to DHIS and can also be exported to other tools for analysis, such as Excel.

The Global Fund provided mobile phones to support the roll-out of the system. to more than 1,000 sites around Zimbabwe. The system is currently being pilot tested at 20 sentinel surveillance sites in two provinces. After reviewing the results of the pilot and making necessary adjustments, the new mobile-phone-based disease surveillance system will be rolled out nationally.