The Ebola outbreak of 2015 has exposed many problems within healthcare infrastructure in developing nations. One of the greatest weaknesses revealed by this outbreak has been data collection, which leads to an inadequate allocation of resources during infectious disease outbreaks. One of the key problems with data collection is transferring data from paper to electronic form. Currently, data in developing countries is recorded and then typed into an Excel spreadsheet, which is emailed up the healthcare hierarchy. The lack of a centralized database exacerbates the problem and leads to discrepancies in data collection. Further, research has shown that working with a community to develop a solution is much more effective than imposing one. Health Empowered strongly believes a sustainable technological solution can be achieved through understanding the cultural values of the communities themselves.
Moving forward, Health Empowered is focusing on modifying smartpen and paper technology, such as the NextGen NextPen and Evernote, for use in rural communities. This technology allows users to create an electronic copy of their writing. Once the electronic copy is uploaded to a computer, users can search for key phrases in their notes or organize their written information in spreadsheets. By implementing this technology in rural clinics, transcription errors would be eliminated when transferring health information from paper to electronic files. Health Empowered would also like to create software, which would automatically sort public health data and use search algorithms to detect trends. This software would empower communities to take public health into their own hands, rather than wait for a government agency to respond.
