Electronic Data Collection in Health Research: Shared Experiences from the Field, South Africa

Background: mHealth and electronic data collection (EDC) systems have rapidly expanded in developing countries. A synthesis of the experiences of the researchers in resource limited African settings who have used electronic (mobile) systems to facilitate data collection in large-scale research was conducted. Methods: We synthesise the experiences of researchers and users engaged in studies using electronic data collection conducted by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC): (1) A cross sectional national survey of 9679 mother-infant pairs measuring the effectiveness of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme using low cost Nokia mobile phones; (2) A school-based randomised control trial to prevent gender based violence with teenagers (N=3755) using iPod Touch; (3) A longitudinal community-based study on International Alcohol Control using LAVA tablets on 2000 adults and 1000 adolescents; (4) A retrospective descriptive survey on injury mortality using entry-level Nokia phones to interview 22,733 participants using questionnaires. Results: Electronic Data Collection (EDC) necessitates systematic set-up and testing of the system, training and daily support of data collectors with appropriate matching between data collector age, ability, the tools complexity and size. Some of the risks noted in four research studies conducted in resource-limited settings were delayed uploading of data due to no or limited network coverage, loss of devices (e.g., cell phone or iPod touch), increased training time for older aged users, typing errors, and challenge of keeping batteries charged while conducting fieldwork. The benefits noted included the use of automated skip patterns and mandatory fields which reduced errors and early detection of potential errors, user-friendly interfaces, access to real time data for monitoring of field work enabling simultaneous feedback to staff and management, negated the need for data capturers, reduced printing and storage costs and reduction in time from completion of data collection to the generation of a cleaned final data set for analysis. Conclusion: The benefits of using electronic (mobile) systems for data collection appear to outweigh the risks in resource limited settings. Given the continuously changing information and technology age, electronic mobile technologies are becoming a popular data collection tool. Like any other technological tool, electronic systems can be improved to