mHealth applications for the 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola outbreak
Citation: Tom-Aba D, Nguku PM, Arinze CC, et al. Assessing the concepts and designs of 58 mobile apps for the management of the 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola outbreak: systematic review. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. 2018;4(4):e68.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Nothing noted.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles related to mHealth tools during the 2014-15 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa. They included articles published in any language between 2014 and 2015. The authors found 58 studies.
What was found: Community Care (CommCare), Sense Ebola Followup, and Surveillance and Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) were the only three applications capable of surveillance, contact tracing, case management, and data analysis.
Implications: The authors stated that CommCare, Sense Ebola Followup, and SORMAS could guide further development of mHealth tools for infectious disease surveillance and outbreak management.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity.
This summary was written by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Sneha Bhadti and finalized by William Summerskilll.