Availability and Suitability of Digital Health Tools in Africa for Pandemic Control: Scoping Review and Cluster Analysis.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Gaining oversight into the rapidly growing number of mobile health tools for surveillance or outbreak management in Africa has become a challenge.Objective
The aim of this study is to map the functional portfolio of mobile health tools used for surveillance or outbreak management of communicable diseases in Africa.Methods
We conducted a scoping review by combining data from a systematic review of the literature and a telephone survey of experts. We applied the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines by searching for articles published between January 2010 and December 2020. In addition, we used the respondent-driven sampling method and conducted a telephone survey from October 2019 to February 2020 among representatives from national public health institutes from all African countries. We combined the findings and used a hierarchical clustering method to group the tools based on their functionalities (attributes).Results
We identified 30 tools from 1914 publications and 45 responses from 52% (28/54) of African countries. Approximately 13% of the tools (4/30; Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System, Go.Data, CommCare, and District Health Information Software 2) covered 93% (14/15) of the identified attributes. Of the 30 tools, 17 (59%) tools managed health event data, 20 (67%) managed case-based data, and 28 (97%) offered a dashboard. Clustering identified 2 exceptional attributes for outbreak management, namely contact follow-up (offered by 8/30, 27%, of the tools) and transmission network visualization (offered by Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System and Go.Data).Conclusions
There is a large range of tools in use; however, most of them do not offer a comprehensive set of attributes, resulting in the need for public health workers having to use multiple tools in parallel. Only 13% (4/30) of the tools cover most of the attributes, including those most relevant for response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as laboratory interface, contact follow-up, and transmission network visualization.
SUBMITTER: Silenou BC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8738990 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Availability and Suitability of Digital Health Tools in Africa for Pandemic Control: Scoping Review and Cluster Analysis.
Silenou Bernard C BC Nyirenda John L Z JLZ Zaghloul Ahmed A Lange Berit B Doerrbecker Juliane J Schenkel Karl K Krause Gérard G
JMIR public health and surveillance 20211223 12
<h4>Background</h4>Gaining oversight into the rapidly growing number of mobile health tools for surveillance or outbreak management in Africa has become a challenge.<h4>Objective</h4>The aim of this study is to map the functional portfolio of mobile health tools used for surveillance or outbreak management of communicable diseases in Africa.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a scoping review by combining data from a systematic review of the literature and a telephone survey of experts. We applied the ...[more]
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