Overview

One of the critical needs of lymphatic filariasis elimination programs is to determine when Mass Drug Administration can be stopped and the disease prevalence has been brought to a level such that transmission is no longer sustainable.

In order to achieve this goal, we need tests that can accurately give us a representation of how much infection is circulating in a community. One part of our study was to determine which test or combination of tests was best suited for this task.

These tasks require accurate collection of large datasets and proved to be a great opportunity to design a data collection system that utilized the recent technologic advances in computers and PDAs. Traditional data collection has been time consuming and prone to error. Often information must be collected in the field and manually transferred into computers for analysis. In the process, data is often lost and requires large amounts of data cleaning.

Goals of the EDGE system

Work with experts to improve survey and specimen data collection by developing a technical system that:

• utilizes technologies such as handheld computers (PDA)
• takes advantage of GPS coordinates
• allows for accurate laboratory sample to individual linkage using preprinted bar codes and scanners
• transfers data from disparate field locations to centralized servers for post processing via the internet

Partners