A new paradigm for disease surveillance in Vietnam

Telemed J E Health. 2014 May;20(5):493-5. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2013.0250. Epub 2014 Mar 10.

Abstract

Medical surveillance data from all government health clinics in Vietnam are currently collected through a slow, paper-driven process. Short message service (SMS) technology delivered through mobile phones offers a simple solution to improving the speed through which disease surveillance information can be collected. Identifying health concerns earlier with this mobile-based disease surveillance system has the potential to improve the care for patients seen at community health clinics as well as predict more quickly that a medical emergency, such as a pandemic, will occur. Thus, we piloted the feasibility of an SMS-based disease surveillance system designed for healthcare workers in Vietnam to directly report disease information on diarrhea and influenza-like illness to a central data repository using their mobile phones and an intuitive, user-friendly platform. This article reports data from 1,579 patient data entries in 20 Vietnamese health clinics during a 6-month period.

MeSH terms

  • Ambulatory Care Facilities / statistics & numerical data
  • Cell Phone / statistics & numerical data*
  • Community Health Services / organization & administration
  • Developing Countries
  • Diarrhea / diagnosis
  • Diarrhea / epidemiology
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Female
  • Health Surveys / methods*
  • Humans
  • Influenza, Human / diagnosis
  • Influenza, Human / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Medical Records / statistics & numerical data*
  • Needs Assessment
  • Pilot Projects
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Telecommunications / organization & administration*
  • Telemedicine / statistics & numerical data*
  • Vietnam