Caroline Kabaria of the African Population & Health Research Center in Kenya will use geographic information systems (GIS) to map the location of health facilities and community health volunteers in Kenya to identify particularly marginalized slum populations that need better access to health services such as vaccinations. Nairobi and Kisumu contain over 100 slums where residents live in dense and unsanitary conditions. The specific health needs of these residents are difficult to assess from national statistics that often exclude them. To address this, they will conduct an in-depth assessment to identify equity gaps specifically in childhood immunizations. Community health volunteers will be trained to use GIS mapping techniques and to register households, and the data will be integrated with the existing district health information system (DHIS 2). This will be used to produce an interactive map of the two cities that includes the spatial and social structures of informal settlements and the location of health facilities. They will also provide training and guidance to local stakeholders on how to utilize the map to improve vaccination coverage.

Hidenori Harada of Kyoto University in Japan will develop and test a largely automated system for the regular removal and safe disposal of fecal sludge from septic tanks in Asia. Billions of people rely on septic systems to collect human waste. Regular emptying and proper disposal of fecal sludge are critical to avoid potential contamination of clean water by backups, leaks and illegal dumping of waste. Hazardous sanitation problems occur when customers are unaware of the need to have their system emptied or when truck operators hired to empty sludge illegally dump the waste outside of a proper treatment site. They will institute a program by which tanks are – at no charge to the customer - equipped with tagged covers that provide access for safe emptying and enables them to be registered with a centrally-monitored system that will automatically notify customers when their tank needs to be emptied. Payment by households for emptying the tanks will be collected electronically, and the sludge will be removed and transported via trucks equipped with GPS to ensure proper disposal of the waste at a treatment center. The system will be tested in cooperation with a public emptier in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Paul Namwanja of the Community Health Centre, Busabala in Uganda will implement mobile technology for village health teams to monitor households and childhood vaccinations on remote islands in Uganda and to establish public-private partnerships with community health workers and boat owners to improve vaccine coverage. Vaccination rates on Ugandan islands are significantly lower than the national level because of unreliable transportation to access mainland healthcare centers; island residents rely on commercial fishing boats to travel and face long wait times for healthcare service. They will modify an existing mobile application for village health teams to create a registry of new and expectant mothers by recording household location and required vaccines. These data can then be shared with mainland health workers and used to facilitate access to a subsidized boat taxi service for travel to medical appointments. They will test their approach on six trial islands by providing the mobile phones and application along with training to health workers and recruiting boat drivers and evaluate its effect on vaccination coverage.

Rumi Chunara of New York University in the U.S. will collect data from mobile phones of healthcare workers to develop algorithms that will help prioritize healthcare resources to increase vaccine coverage in Punjab, Pakistan. Immunization is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health strategies and is estimated to prevent up to three million deaths each year. Still, many rural areas of low- and middle-income countries have an under-vaccinated population due to a lack of formal education and awareness of the importance of vaccinations. They will collect data on disease incidence and vaccine resources and coverage from the mobile phones of 3,800 rural healthcare workers. These data will be used to train an artificial intelligence model to identify the ideal times and locations to target vaccine efforts. The model will also address accessibility and awareness issues by incorporating distance to healthcare centers and frequency of visits. Their approach will be evaluated by analyzing coverage before and after implementation. Once proven, it can be scaled to other areas in Pakistan.