Problems in Frontline Health

Data Quality

Frontline health workers around the world provide critical services and care in areas where other health infrastructure is lacking. Modern digital health tools allow frontline health workers to collect a wide range of data in their communities - maternal and child health data, infectious disease statistics, and much more. Responsible data collection techniques bring value to the work of frontline health personnel and support the right care or intervention at the right time to reduce deaths from preventable causes.

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In an exploratory study of more than 7.8 million frontline health encounter data points, DataKind found that data quality issues, such as inconsistencies in self-reported survey data and miscalibrated health measurement tools, can propagate across interconnected health systems.

Data Observation Toolkit

DataKind developed the Data Observation Toolkit (DOT) to address data quality issues. DOT is a data management toolkit and Digital Public Good for identifying, monitoring, and managing inconsistent or problematic data. It is currently in use by several organizations, including the Ministry of Health in Uganda, Medic, and Riders for Health, who are looking to scale DOT across four countries of operation.

Challenges

We’ve identified three types of challenges that stand to benefit from your data, software, and storytelling skills:

Challenge Demonstrate DOT’s value and premise

This is key to encouraging organizations to address data quality issues. Bring your own datasets, use datasets provided by DataKind or create synthetic data to create case studies for DOT.

Challenge Enhance the DOT user experience

A complicated or tedious user experience can be a huge barrier to the adoption and sustainable, impactful use of any application. Help make DOT more user-friendly and efficient by streamlining processes, automating tasks, or providing more intuitive interfaces.

Challenge Expand DOT’s capabilities

This is key to operational adoption and recurring usage of the system. Expand DOT’s feature set, integration capabilities, or analytical tooling to generate insights.

Route Optimization

Frontline organizations that provide the delivery of essential health and related services to the most vulnerable populations face numerous operational challenges including high costs related to fleet management, routing and managing growing demand.

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Organizations like SOIL in Haiti and Sanima in Peru are tackling the health and environmental crisis caused by lack of access to safe and dignified sanitation. Sprawling settlements with scarce water resources become highly vulnerable to outbreaks in places where rapid urbanization has outpaced infrastructure development. As the need for vital sanitation services grows, efforts are often stymied by waste collection logistics, where manual scheduling systems result in unnecessary costs and poor resource allocation.

Container-based Action Routing Tool

DataKind volunteers developed the open-source Container-based Action Routing Tool (CART) to empower container-based sanitation (CBS) providers to plan optimal collection routes. CART helps providers reduce costs, improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and increase coverage. Read more about how CART is being used by in Haiti and Peru.

Challenges

We’ve identified three critical areas where technical, design, and analytical skills can significantly enhance CART’s effectiveness and user experience:

Challenge Reduce CART input errors

Accurate route optimization starts with manual data entry, which is prone to user error. Misconfigured vehicles and invalid customer records are common issues. Help make CART resilient by developing robust validation mechanisms or error-checking workflows.

Challenge Increase CART usability

CART deployment assumes a technical aptitude that can create barriers to entry. Create a more guided user experience by exploring tooltips, wizards and UI innovations to transform CART into a more intuitive and valuable tool.

Challenge Allow user customization

Users have unique needs and preferences. While CART offers many options and solution adjustments, we could strive for a more personalized experience. Consider implementing user profiles or preferences that remember and auto-apply preferred settings and configuration templates.