Testing out EpiCollect on vacation

I have just returned from a great week's holiday in Cornwall where I decide to test out EpiCollect in the wildest of UK countryside. I set out on two separate days to map coastal walks first to the West (using an iPhone 4S) and then to the East of St Ives (using a cheap Samsung Android GT).

I created a very basic form using the online EpiCollect form creator - capturing a location, time/date, photo, name and GPS reference. The form took about 10 minutes to create and download onto my phones. It then took about 60 seconds to add each entry to the map.

I was really impressed by how accurate the mapping was - try zooming into the map through the link below in a satellite view. I had a few problems with the iPhone not capturing data or crashing. The Samsung was a bit slow to latch on GPS satellites ( 1-2 minutes) but otherwise it all worked well. Some of the software had a few bugs - eg trying to list remote entries on the phone but I am sure these will be addressed.

So good result - just can wait to go on holiday to test it out again!

View the live map here: http://goo.gl/dIufQ or by scanning the QR code with your phone.

Towards One Health disease surveillance

Paper in the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research .... lead author Esron Karimuribo from SACIDS, Tanzania. Full paper here... http://www.ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/454/521


Africa has the highest burden of infectious diseases in the world and yet the least capacity for its risk management. It has therefore become increasingly important to search for ‘fit-forpurpose’ approaches to infectious disease surveillance and thereby targeted disease control. 


The fact that the majority of human infectious diseases are originally of animal origin means we have to consider One Health (OH) approaches which require inter-sectoral collaboration for custom-made infectious disease surveillance in the endemic settings of Africa. A baseline survey was conducted to assess the current status and performance of human and animal health surveillance systems and subsequently a strategy towards OH surveillance system was developed. 


The strategy focused on assessing the combination of participatory epidemiological approaches and the deployment of mobile technologies to enhance the effectiveness of disease alerts and surveillance at the point of occurrence, which often lies in remote areas. We selected three study sites, namely the Ngorongoro, Kagera River basin and Zambezi River basin ecosystems. 


We have piloted and introduced  the next-generation Android mobile phones running the EpiCollect application developed by Imperial College to aid geo-spatial and clinical data capture and transmission of this data from the field to the remote Information Technology (IT) servers at the research hubs for storage, analysis, feedback and reporting. We expect that the combination of participatory epidemiology and technology will significantly improve OH disease surveillance in southern Africa.

Mobile learning 1st march 2012

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Mobile learning seminar

Introduction to mobile learning and development: exploring pedagogical design and implementation

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Thursday 1st March 2012

Time: 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Venue: Upper Meeting Room (103), London International Development Centre, 36 Gordon Square

This one-day workshop will provide an introduction to mobile learning. It will explore mobile pedagogies and practices, providing an opportunity for participants to find out more about the design of mobile learning activities for use in the Global South. The main part of the day will be given over to group discussion on issues related to pedagogical design and the integration, implementation and adoption of mobile learning in higher and practitioner education. 

 

Who should attend: It is an open workshop and everyone is welcome to attend. The workshop will be particularly relevant to researchers working on education methodologies, lecturers in development-related courses, and those willing to adopt m-learning in their work. 

 

RSVP: admin@lidc.bloomsbury.ac.uk by Monday, 27 February 2012

File: Full event details.pdf

Photos from the Vetaid Emergency Vaccination Campaign

These photos were taken during December 2011 by Vetaid Kenya staff working on the emergency vaccination response to the East African drought.