Akros Contributes to mHealth Journal

By Alexis Barnes on November 12, 2015 in Health Data Systems, News

Akros contributed to a recent USAID journal on mHealth use throughout Africa. The fourth volume compendium, produced by the African Strategies for Health Project for USAID, documented Akros’ work in malaria community surveillance for elimination, community-led total sanitation mobile surveillance and mSpray.

The article discussed how we partnered with the Zambian government to design a comprehensive WASH surveillance system using basic Nokia feature phones that works to target the 50 percent of Zambians that are without access to adequate sanitation.

Just like in our WASH work, the malaria community surveillance for elimination program we helped create uses a system where community health workers and mobile phones combined with the District Health Information System (DHIS) platform to create a sustainable solution to low access and areas of need.

Indoor residual spraying (IRS) mapping, monitoring and feedback tools for malaria control are expensive and therefore need to be as efficient and effective as possible. The journal includes how Akros’ mSpray program helped transition IRS operators from manually aggregated paper forms to electronic data collection. Spray coverage is overlaid on satellite images of target areas improving accuracy and increasing monitoring efficiency.

Akros has utilized mobile devices for the aggregation and dissemination of health information in Zambia for almost five years, tackling malaria elimination and improved sanitation. The journal showcased our partnership with the Zambian government and the hundreds of community health workers, environmental health technicians and community champions that make these programs possible.

[icon size=”24″]icon-file[/icon] Click here to download Volume 4 of the mHealth Compendium

About Alexis Barnes

Alexis Barnes is a communications and advocacy Global Health Corps fellow at Akros. Previously a NYC-based journalist, she has interests in development, sanitation issues and human rights.