In December 2014, EpiHack™ Tanzania brought together health experts and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programmers to collaborate and provide solutions to challenges facing public health officials and response in Southern and Eastern Africa.
EpiHack™ Tanzania resulted in the creation of four prototypes, including:
- One Health disease tracking platform to store disease reports and collect information from the field
- Mtoolbox, a platform for district-level health experts to broadcast Short Message Service (SMS) notifications to health facility workers
- Contact tracing to trace back potentially affected animals when a case of an infectious disease is detected
- Official reporting to improve information reported in health facilities using SMS reporting, a phone application, and a reporting wheel
Some of the developed prototypes led to the Community-Based Disease Outbreak Detection and Response in Eastern and Southern Africa (DODRES) project, which created the AfyaData app, a two-way communication mechanism for health systems and community members to share timely health surveillance data.
