DataPulse- An SMS based technology for antimicrobial use surveillance

DataPulse is a digital solution for secure SMS communication via a dedicated

mobile application, with dropdowns etc, uniquely designed for effectiveness even in rural regions with limited or no internet connectivity. The technology will be used for Antimicrobial resistance use and surveillance in low resource settings.

The Solution is led by the head of our IT and Data analytic department at our NGO, CREAMS Mw

Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use data remains a key challenge in resources limited countries. Most resource limited countries have poor quality data, low digitization of tools, and inadequate resources including both financial and human resources to fight antimicrobial resistance.  Even though multiple efforts are currently ongoing to fight AMR, one key aspect is antimicrobial use surveillance, for promotion of optimal use of antimicrobial. Inappropriate use of antibiotics is a major driver of AMR and can be observed in many forms but not limited to: wrong dose, wrong indication, incomplete dosage, inappropriate prescribing, and poor disposal medical waste. More over generating such antimicrobial use and resistance data from the rural communities and non-health related sectors remains a huge challenge. Furthermore resource limited countries relies on paper work, which makes even harder to collate antimicrobial use data. Datapulse will solve such challenges by utilizing SMS technology offline application that can be utilized by clinical pharmacist, nurses, community health workers and people in the food and animal industries. The interactive dashboard will provide real time monitoring of antimicrobial use and resistance patterns from the sources in which data couldn't be previously obtained.

Our solutions targets health care workers, farmers, veterinarians, food processors and Policy makers at Large. We intend to cover gaps that currently exist in resource limited countries for generation of antimicrobial use and resistance data in both clinical and non clinical settings. Policy makers can only make appropriate policies if they are well informed with high quality evidence. As a non governmental organization, Clinical Research Education and Management Services, is championing antimicrobial resistance research in Malawian setting across the ONE Health domains. We do both qualitative and qualitative research to under the extent of antimicrobial resistance and challenges experienced in the fight against it. In the past 5 years of our research we have discovered that access to high quality antimicrobial use data from local communities and non-clinical settings remains a huge challenge. We have engaged policy makers, and we developed data pulse as a digital tool that can help use to monitor AMU data across the one Health Domain. The app will be used by community health workers, veterinary assistants, farmers, food processors, and other community volunteers who can administer surveys in communities through data-pulse, even if there is no internet.  our interactive dashboards will provide real time visualization.

Our solution will provide multiple public goods to people. Firstly, once our data is collected, the dashboards will be accessible to policy makers for decision making. The dashboards will also be accessible to the general public upon request, so they also get to appreciate how problematic AMR is. Finally our application will be available free of access to all hospital personnel, community health workers, veterinary assistants who would like to help in gathering community based data for antimicrobial surveillance

With the goal of tackling antimicrobial resistance through promoting prudent and appropriate use of antimicrobial through generating rich antimicrobial data at both community and hospital level, our impacts transcend boundaries. Our solution will generate evidence rich data for targeted community antimicrobial stewardship programs by ensuring that all stakeholders are on board. There is limited community engagement in low resource settings, particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, with antimicrobial resistance affecting everyone, and having significant economic household cost, it becomes prudent that the community need to be informed through generating data that comes from them. We are doing baseline studies, and currently we are on data analysis phase, to understand utilization of AWaRe antibiotics, and its impact at community level. This will help us to engage the community at all levels of our solution.

In the next three years, we intend to

Expand the deployment to additional regions, incorporating more comprehensive data analysis
capabilities

- Integrate with existing health information systems and Tableau for enhanced data visualization
and analysis.
- Focus on optimizing the application's performance and user interface based on comprehensive
user feedback and data analysis.
- Begin scaling the solution globally, targeting new regions and adapting the application to
various local contexts.
- Strengthen encryption and data security measures in response to evolving cyber threats

By ensuring regional reach for our solutions, and working with various NGO's, we can harness more data across sub-Saharan Africa and inform appropriate policies in the WHO Afro region and world at Large

With the goal of achieving offline data collection, in remote hard to reach areas, we have set a number of measurable actions we can use to tract progress of our work. At the Pilot phase, we look at following indicators

1. The number of successful data entries into our offline application that have successfully been integrated into our interactive dashboards.

2. Number of users that can access the system at the same time without problems.

3. Behavioral change or policy influence through our interactive dashboard that gives real time data about the situation on the ground.

as we evolve and constantly upgrade our work, we will bring in more measurable indicators to tract progress of our work and its impact on population health.

since inception, our biggest challenge has been financial support for bigger piloting of our data collecting tool. We have operated on limited finance with one local organization completing supporting the good cause. We believe through this funding challenge, we would secure the funds to scale up our solution to a bigger level. As we grow we will need more advanced infrastructures and computer systems as well as the technical know how to upgrade our solution. Even though we are duly registered with the registrar general of businesses, we are still working on achieving universal support from users, particularly those in private sector.

our quest to generate data for antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use spiked the desire to go for the trinity challenge when we first so it. Your challenge aligns with our goals for developing cheap, technologically driven affordable tools for tackling antimicrobial resistance in developing countries. With our innovative solution on AMR and AMU use data gathering and collation, we believe the trinity challenge would connect us to other expert across the world, whom we can work with to further develop our solution to meet the global standard, and be adaptable to  multiple low resource settings. Just like in any other developing countries, generating rich data for AMU is a huge challenge. Similary, technological innovations in low resource settings stalls due to limited funding, and availability of resources for larger scale testing and adoption. We therefore believe that the trinity challenge would offer us that help, so we  show case this life transforming solution to the world and achieve the desired maximum impact at both local and global level.

For our solution to be successful, we need Data Scientist, AI experts, Social Scientists, Community engagement Expert and research scientist, as well as any other technological experts and policy analyst. With all these people brought together, we believe we would achieve the desired maximum impact. Through proper integration of technology in data collection, we can break the barriers and create new horizons for harnessing data at community level.  We believe with the right people aligned, we would bring the evidence into its fruition.