Decreasing barriers to data submission for multisite injury prevention programs in American Indian/ Alaska Native communities: An innovative cloud-based solution

Background: Electronic data capture (EDC) is an innovative informatics approach that has recently gained momentum in public health research. Characterized by remote data entry and centralized data management, EDC has the potential to dramatically enhance data collection, management, and reporting for multisite injury prevention programs. In January 2014, researchers deployed an EDC system from a cloud platform to promote timely reporting for an injury prevention program targeting seat belt use in 9 Indian Health Service areas.

Methods: EDC was piloted by adapting a standard hardcopy seat belt observation checklist examining driver and front passenger seat belt use. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and means were used to examine the increase in data submission before and during the implementation of EDC.

Results/ Outcomes: Researchers expect increased seat belt data submission, as EDC provides additional opportunities for reporting and multiple program sites can be encouraged at the same time.

Conclusions: Cloud technology and EDC allow researchers to target geographically dispersed program sites simultaneously and receive data in “real-time” as they work to decrease gaps in seat belt use. Investment in data infrastructure can be expensive, so it is beneficial for American Indian/ Alaska Native injury prevention programs to explore cost-effective systems that can ease data entry and management within and across sites. As this population experiences increased injuries and fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes and lack of seat belt use, the timely receipt of site-level and program-level data is critical in monitoring program success and identifying areas to improve program effectiveness.