Linking Malaria Data Collection Systems to Common Locations

Matt Berg of Ona Systems Inc. in the U.S. will develop a map widget that enables data collected by different platforms on different aspects of malaria, such as disease incidence and intervention efforts, to be accurately mapped and therefore more effectively integrated to help eliminate malaria. It is currently difficult to map specific events particularly in rural areas of developing countries, which lack formal addresses. Different groups use different naming schemes when recording disease-relevant data, making them difficult to cross-reference. They will develop the map widget so that users collecting or requesting data can pinpoint their location on a display of the layout of buildings and open spaces in their area using a mobile device. They will also adapt popular data collection platforms to be compatible with their system. Each location has an ID so a user can look up all disease-relevant events across different databases. In this way, the best intervention method to reduce malaria can be identified at each location. They will work with a national malaria elimination program to test their approach.