Dickinson Fiona M, McCauley Mary, Madaj Barbara, van den Broek Nynke
Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2019 May 27;19(1):336. doi: 10.1186/s12913-019-4161-7.
Health service and health outcome data collection across many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is, to date largely paper-based. With the development and increased availability of reliable technology, electronic tablets could be used for electronic data collection in such settings. This paper describes our experiences with implementing electronic data collection methods, using electronic tablets, across different settings in four LMICs.
Within our research centre, the use of electronic data collection using electronic tablets was piloted during a healthcare facility assessment study in Ghana. After further development, we then used electronic data collection in a multi-country, cross-sectional study to measure ill-health in women during and after pregnancy, in India, Kenya and Pakistan. All data was transferred electronically to a central research team in the UK where it was processed, cleaned, analysed and stored.
The healthcare facility assessment study in Ghana demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability to healthcare providers of using electronic tablets to collect data from seven healthcare facilities. In the maternal morbidity study, electronic data collection proved to be an effective way for healthcare providers to document over 400 maternal health variables, in 8530 women during and after pregnancy in India, Kenya and Pakistan.
Electronic data collection provides an effective platform which can be used successfully to collect data from healthcare facility registers and from patients during health consultations; and to transfer large quantities of data. To ensure successful electronic data collection and transfer between settings, we recommend that close attention is paid to study design, data collection, tool design, local internet access and device security.
迄今为止，许多低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs）的卫生服务和健康结果数据收集主要基于纸质。随着可靠技术的发展和可用性增加，电子平板电脑可用于在这些环境中进行电子数据收集。本文描述了我们在四个LMICs的不同环境中使用电子平板电脑实施电子数据收集方法的经验。
在我们的研究中心，在加纳的一项医疗机构评估研究中试点使用电子平板电脑进行电子数据收集。经过进一步开发，我们随后在一项多国横断面研究中使用电子数据收集，以测量印度、肯尼亚和巴基斯坦妇女在孕期及产后的健康不佳情况。所有数据都通过电子方式传输到英国的一个中央研究团队，在那里进行处理、清理、分析和存储。
加纳的医疗机构评估研究证明了医疗服务提供者使用电子平板电脑从七个医疗机构收集数据的可行性和可接受性。在孕产妇发病率研究中，电子数据收集被证明是医疗服务提供者记录印度、肯尼亚和巴基斯坦8530名妇女在孕期及产后400多个孕产妇健康变量的有效方式。
电子数据收集提供了一个有效的平台，可成功用于从医疗机构登记册和健康咨询期间的患者那里收集数据，并传输大量数据。为确保在不同环境之间成功进行电子数据收集和传输，我们建议密切关注研究设计、数据收集、工具设计、本地互联网接入和设备安全。
