SA developed app to boost Ebola reporting

Johannesburg - Aid organisations fighting Ebola in West Africa don't need to rely on paper forms to collect data anymore thanks to an app developed with the help of a South African company.

Aid organisations rely on data collected from paper forms in the field to make decisions in their fight against the Ebola outbreak.

Subsequently, data gathered via paper forms can take a long time to get to decision makers.

But a Stellenbosch business app development outfit called Journey has worked with US teams in Washington and Silicon Valley to develop and pilot an app called ‘Ebola Care’ which replaces paper forms.

The app works on Android phones and helps health workers trace possibly infected patients to prevent new infections, collect patient data from ambulance teams, observe and evaluate children under the 21-day quarantine period, and keep track of children abandoned owing to parents contracting Ebola.

Judy Hofmeyr, communications strategist for Journey, told Fin24 that the app has been piloted with 20 people in Monrovia, Liberia.

“Many of the most affected areas do not use street names and run on paper medical records, making the app’s capacity to identify affected ‘cluster’ areas and digitally monitor health workers’ movements a pioneering step in the fight against Ebola,” Hofmeyr told Fin24.

“To maximise efficiency, the Ebola Care app utilises GPS (global satellite positioning) coordinates to trace those infected and their families, and to assist ambulance teams collecting sick patients to capture vital information.”

“The app further helps NGO’s in the care of children abandoned or orphaned due to the outbreak, and monitors children under the 21-day quarantine period,” Hofmeyr added.

Sam Herring, who is a data manager at NGO More Than Me, has high praise for the app, even at its early pilot stage.

“With the Ebola Care app, data that once took weeks to receive is now rolling in by the minute,” he said.

“In order to be effective during any crisis, accessing real-time data is paramount as time is of the essence,” he added.

Journey also plans to deploy more than 1 000 phones to aid organisations in West Africa.

Meanwhile, the Ebola Care app is not the only piece of tech helping to fight the outbreak in West Africa as the likes of IBM have developed initiatives that help report Ebola issues via SMS or phone calls in countries such as Sierra Leone.

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