Piloting the first-ever RAMP survey using dhis mobile

Background There is an increasing demand for more cost effective and timely data collection and analysis of evaluation interventions and survey results. A Rapid Mobile Phone-based (RAMP) survey is an innovative approach to designing health surveys using mobile phones to capture data directly from the field. RAMP surveys are conducted majorly using Episurveyor (and LimeSurvey). DHIS mobile offers a more flexible approach to conducting RAMP surveys. The objective of this pilot is to demonstrate the possibility (and enumerate the flexibility) of using DHIS mobile for a RAMP survey. Method A survey (mapping of MARPS) questionnaire was configured on a DHIS server (16GB RAM – other applications are running concurrently); DHIS2.10 was deployed using Tomcat 7 and MySQL as the database. Blackberry phones were used to capture data via the internet. Tracking and aggregate models were used. A pivot table with customized background query was configured to link to the (MySQL) database, and make data available for cleaning. ‘IF' functions and conditional formatting were used to aid data cleaning. Results i) The piloting was successful, both aggregate and tracking models were effective, although the tracking model was a better option for this pilot. ii) Real-time data entry on mobile phones, data upload, monitoring, cleaning and analysis iii) Flexible and unlimited configuration without the need for a premium account

Recommendations i) A DHIS instance running perfectly on a servlet is recommended ii) A lot of planning is required, a demo survey may be required to fine tune the survey. iii) Knowledge of query language may be required iv) Using the tracking model, creating the forms as organization units was more effective

*DHIS – District Health Information Software