Leveraging health through early warning systems using mobile and service oriented technology

Abstract

The provision of information on emerging dangerous circumstances in order to reduce the risks before they occur has triggered a lot of research interest in the recent past. The development of early warning systems for disaster risk management has become the focus of numerous global strategies for development. Early warning systems are surveillance systems that collect information on epidemic-prone issues such as diseases in order to trigger prompt public interventions. While the Government of Kenya is doing a lot to improve the quality of health of its citizen, by providing low cost health centers and subsidized drugs for treatment, a lot still needs to be done to prevent epidemics. Disasters wipe out decades of human progress and development in just a few seconds. The recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is one such example. Information and communication technology (ICT) can help developing countries tackle a wide range of health problems. This research was triggered by the need to investigate how ICT can be used to leverage medical health issues development in developing countries through innovative concepts. The study was initially funded by the National Council for Science and Technology supported by United States International University to investigate how to leverage health information access through mobile technology. A pilot survey was carried out on health information requirements in different peri-urban areas and the initial results were presented in the IST-Africa 2014 conference. The presentation led to collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics of the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, to develop an early warning system that would be tested in Kenya. This paper presents the final results of the funded project as well as the initial results of the models developed from the collaboration.