Data collected electronically

Chiang Mai University, hospital devise mobile system to build database

Saraphi Hospital and Chiang Mai University have developed a mobile electronic system called Saraphi Health to survey residents of Chiang Mai's Saraphi district for healthcare policy development and management.

"The data collector can key in the information into the system when they visit people in Saraphi district. The information they collect will be embedded in the location of the house, which will be plotted on a map. Then this public health information can be visualised. We can also see the houses in Google Street View," Waraporn Boonchiang, a member of the software development team, said last week.

The three-year project funded by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation aims to build a digital archive to be used by organisations to formulate public health policy, improve public health services and address urgent situations efficiently.

Ekkarat Boonchiang, head of the university's computer science development team, said the concept behind the cooperative effort is to turn the manual public health information collection system into a completely electronic system with more layers of data. The new system will be easier to use by the stakeholders in community health management including hospitals, agencies and local governments.

The raw data will be input into the system via iOS and Android smart phones and tablets, which will immediately send all the collected data back to the central system located at Saraphi Hospital over the public cellular network.

The two main parts are the client app, which can be downloaded into a smart phone or tablet, and the central system. The data collectors - public health officers, public health volunteers and young people in the district - will carry a smart phone or tablet on their visits to all 12 tambon in the district.

The collected data will be analysed and visualised for policy development and management.

The beauty of this system is that public health management and policymakers can "see" the whole, up-to-date health picture of the entire district.

"With the location input via GPS into the smart phone and tablet, we can identify where every household is. How many people in that household? How many elders? What are their diseases? We can see specific households and can look through information like this for the entire district," Waraporn said.

Each tambon has eight to 12 villages. The entire district has about 40,000 people and about 22,000 households. After three months of data collection, the system already holds the public health background of some 15,000 households. The project aims to contact all 22,000 households by the end of this year.

"The system and app help make data collection easier and faster. We have around 10 to 15 data collectors for each tambon. In only three months, we could cover over half of the total population," he said.

Charat Singkeaw, director of Saraphi Hospital, said the hospital has only seven doctors taking care of 86,000 patients. The information helps the hospital to provide healthcare services. It can design a proactive programme to promote good health for people throughout the district and reduce the number of sick people coming to the hospital.

The project is also supported by True Corp and Google Thailand. True Corp has offered TrueMove H 3G SIM cards with unlimited data for three months.

Latest stories in this category

• Data collected electronically


• Chiang Mai University, hospital devise mobile..


• Thinking beyond the current mobile technology


• EMC VMAX, VPLEX and RecoverPoint deliver more..

We Recommend

• Thai Spring launches online campaign against Yingluck


• The speech Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra..


• Framework for Bangkok's development


• Thai Patriotic Front steps up pressure on govt to..

Comments conditions

Users are solely responsible for their comments.We reserve the right to remove any comment and revoke posting rights for any reason withou prior notice.

Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/05/21/data-collected-electronically/