ICT4D News Roundup – March 31, 2017
Welcome to our weekly ICT4D roundup, which highlights news in the ICT4D industry, as well as articles that focus on issues that impact the sectors we work across.
Highlighted articles this week:
- [Video] Children’s aid 2.0: can digital technology save lives in Burkina Faso?
- Mobile Data Collection in Agriculture: RAID Hosts MAD Workshop
- If You Are Still Collecting Data on Paper, You Are Wasting Everyone’s Time
- AI, analytics, and the future of healthcare
WORLD TB DAY IN CAMBODIA: HEALTHCARE IS SCARCE, TB RATES ARE HIGH
Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death by infectious disease, globally. While tuberculosis (TB) incidence has decreased worldwide, developing countries still bear the greatest burden of TB, with 95% of TB deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2014). Due to many factors, including under diagnosis, lack of funding, and lack of local health care facilities, Cambodia has one of the highest rates of TB in the world.
The roads are bright orange and unpaved through the agricultural district of Memot in Cambodia. Along the sides lie miles of maize fields and a few farmers tending to them.
Some of these men reside in the small village of Srosomthmy — one of many tiny hamlets located within the district.
As they nurture their crops, most of their wives are attending an important meeting at the village’s central gathering point to hear about an issue affecting not just them, but the whole country: tuberculosis.”
Read the full article on cnn.com
How might mobile solutions help? Mobile technology can help build TB treatment capacity. Limited healthcare personnel, insufficient training, and counterfeit medicines are significant contributors to the TB epidemic, all of which can be improved with mobile technology. Learn more about CommCare for TB prevention, detection, and treatment here.
NEW, CHEAPER, AND HEAT-STABLE ROTAVIRUS VACCINE COULD PREVENT THOUSANDS OF CHILDHOOD DEATHS
Rotavirus infection kills an estimated 1,300 children each day, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these deaths occur in low-income countries where access to water, sanitation, and medical care is limited. This new vaccine is not only heat-stable, but also cheaper than the other two vaccines that already exist. This new breakthrough shows a continued effort to research and develop vaccines and medicines specifically for low-income settings.
The new vaccine—known as BRV-PV—is cheaper than existing vaccines, specifically adapted to the rotavirus strains found in sub-Saharan Africa, and does not need to be refrigerated. This will make it much easier to reach communities in remote areas that have limited access to health services.”
CHILDREN’S AID 2.0: CAN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY SAVE LIVES IN BURKINA FASO?
Developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from infant mortality rates over 15 times higher than countries in the European Union. The Integrated e-Diagnosis Approach (IeDA) supports healthcare workers in West Africa with digital tablets and mobile applications to improve children’s medical treatment.
Terre des hommes partnered with Dimagi to create a tablet-based application known as the Electronic Register of Consultations (REC). Built on Dimagi’s CommCare platform, the REC aims to increase nurses’ adherence to IMCI protocols by providing enhanced decision support and case management capacity. At the completion of the project, it is expected that the REC will be used in 25% of health clinics in Burkina Faso, reaching a total of 600,000 children. For more information on this project, read the case study here.
Since 2014, the project has helped facilitate the treatment, diagnosis, and care of more than 300,000 children under the age of five.”
MOBILE DATA COLLECTION IN AGRICULTURE: RAID HOSTS MAD WORKSHOP
This workshop brought together over 20 Australia-based researchers to the University of Melbourne to learn how to use CommCare for digital data collection in international agriculture research. Find out what the researchers had to say!
All of my research to-date has been using pen and paper to collect my data, and this workshop was all about ‘up-skilling’ Australian and international researchers in use of digital technology for that kind of research.” – Caspar Roxburgh, University of Queensland
IF YOU ARE STILL COLLECTING DATA ON PAPER, YOU ARE WASTING EVERYONE’S TIME
Not sure if you’re ready to make the switch to a mobile data collection system? Read five reasons for making the switch.
Yet, there are still people advocating for paper-based surveys and projects that actually send out enumerators with questionnaires and clipboards. Why?”
Interested in adopting a mobile data collection tool? Our Total Cost of Ownership model serves as a simple, transparent exercise for organizations interested in understanding the cost of maintaining a mobile solution. This tool will help you estimate the total cost of adopting mobile technologies, plan budgets accordingly, and assess how costs can be shared by governments, external donors, NGOs, or others.
AI, ANALYTICS, AND THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE
What’s the future look like for AI, analytics, and healthcare? Why should we care?
It is now a paramount concern of envisioning the further advancements wherein the study of AI would undertake the inspiring task of moving from the treatment of diseases to circumventing them. Is that even in the realms of possibility?
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