Evaluating a Real Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP)
Evaluating a Real Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP)
From HTN
| Project Information | |
|---|---|
| Category | Rural Healthcare |
| Year | 2008 - 2010 |
| Technology | ICT based surveillance and notification system |
| Place | India (Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka |
| Organisation | IITM’s Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) And LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka |
Contents |
Background
Detecting communicable diseases before it reaches an epidemic state is vital. India is the seventh largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. India has a coastline of 7, 517 kilometers and is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. India comprises of twenty eight states and 7 Union Territories and is bordered by Pakistan to the west; People’s Republic of China (PRC), Nepal and Bhutan to the north; and Bangaladesh and Myanmar to the east. Frequent travel/migration of people, complexity of the symptoms, virulent and mutable nature of newly incident virus strains posts a huge challenge to our current system that does not have the capacity or diligence to search through all the hospital information strings to identify clusters of similar patterns in spatially distributed data sets.
For an example, Chikungunya was first reported in Tamil Nadu at Chennai Corporation in the year 1964. More than 3 lakh cases were recorded at that time. In 2006, 29 Districts were affected in Tamil Nadu. 64,802 cases have been recorded. The spread of disease in Tamil Nadu was prevented by Intensive Vector control measures taken with inter sectoral co-ordination. However, our population has since increased manifold; today the state of Tamil Nadu has an area of 130058 sq. km. and a population of 62.41 million. There are 30 districts, 385 blocks and 16317 villages. The State has population density of 479 per sq. km. (as against the national average of 312). The decadal growth rate of the state is 11.72% (against 21.54% for the country) and the population of the state continues to grow at a much faster rate than the national rate.
The challenge lies in receiving health information in a timely manner in order to prevent diseases reaching epidemic states. The current surveillance system does not provide the much needed “real-time” information flow and analysis to detect such an event of increased number of scattered cases. The real-time detection shortcomings can be easily overcome with reliable and robust Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Intelligent Software (SW).
Objective/Goals
The overall goal of the project is to improve the ability of India and Sri Lanka to collect and respond to clinical, spatial, and weather data to form an overall probabilistic assessment of threat, and combine this probabilistic output from the detection algorithms combined with the results of decision analyses to create an implemented response decision-making system for the Epidemiology Units in the National/State/Regional settings before the disease reaches a “tipping point”.
This is a Multi-Partner[1] Pilot Project, with a period of 2 years to accomplish the research in 4 components – (I) Establish the Electronic Communication System, (II) Introduce Computer based detection system, (III) Implement the RTBP and (IV) Evaluate the Biosurveillance Program.
Technology Description
In the proposed Pilot Phase, Health-related information gathered through mobile handheld devices will be communicated through the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) Networks to a central Database (DB) for analytics and monitoring. The ICT system will use General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Short-Message-Service (SMS) as transport technologies to enable access to SW applications to communicate information on surveillance and alerting. The technologies and SW applications will be assessed for suitability by measuring the performance in India and Sri Lanka.
Implementation
Currently the project stands in the implementation phase with 16 Sarovdaya Suwadana Center Volunteers piloting in Kurunagala District, Sri Lanka and with 24 Village Health Nurses covering 150 villages in Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu – India.
Results
The project will be evaluated for results based on the criterions that will include the rapidity at which an action is taken after receipt of information, the organizational efficiency in coordinating collective action, the choice of appropriate response to the particular incident, the speed at which response plans are carried out, the proper functioning of the ICT and related technologies among others.
[1]Partners – IITM’s Rural Technology and Business Incubator (www.rtbi.in), LIRNEasia (www.lirneasia.net), National Center for Biological Sciencces (www.ncbs.res.in) , Ministry of Health State of Tamil Nadu (India), Ministry of Health, Epidemiology Unit – Government of Sri Lanka (www.epid.gov.lk) , Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya (www.sarvodaya.org), Carnegie Mellon University Auton Laboratory (www.autonlab.org) , University of Alberta (www.extension.ualberta.ca/faculty/memb_gow.aspx) and Lanka Software Foundation (www.opensource.lk
Last Updated:Anilkroy 06:57, 2 July 2009 (UTC)