{"id":48487,"date":"2014-10-13T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=48487"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:40","slug":"6-ways-technology-is-helping-to-fight-ebola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/10\/6-ways-technology-is-helping-to-fight-ebola\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways Technology is Helping to Fight Ebola"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tech-in-the-fight-against-Ebola\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Ebola continues to ravish Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, people from all around the world are working together to stop the disease. In addition to the life saving work of medical staff, logisticians and community organizers, information and communication technology (ICT) is also playing a vital part in supporting their work.<\/p>\n

After consulting the TechChange Alumni community and other experts in international development and humanitarian assistance, I pulled together a list of different technologies being applied to manage Ebola. Below are six examples showing how ICT is already making a difference in the current crisis.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tracing outbreaks with mapping and geolocation<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Aside from isolating patients in a safe environment, one of the biggest challenges in the Ebola response is tracing all contacts that an infected person has been in touch with. While that is difficult enough in developed countries, imagine how much more difficult it is in countries where you don\u2019t know the names of many of the villages. It\u2019s not very helpful if someone tells you \u201cI come from Bendou\u201d if you don\u2019t know how many villages with that name exist nor where they are. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team<\/a> has helped this process through creating maps since the beginning of the response.<\/p>\n

    See: West Africa Ebola Outbreak \u2013 Six months of sustained efforts by the OpenStreetMap community<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"Map<\/a>

    Map of Monrovia in OpenStreetMap before and after volunteers mapped the city in response to the Ebola crisis. (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap)<\/p><\/div>\n

    In addition, the Standby Task Force<\/a> is supporting the response by helping to collect, clean and verify data about health facilities in the affected countries<\/a>. The information will then be published on UN OCHA\u2019s new platform for sharing of humanitarian data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Gathering Ebola information with digital data collection forms<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Contact tracing involves interviewing a lot of people and in most cases that means writing information down on paper which then has to be entered into a computer. That process is both slow and prone to errors. According to this Forbes article<\/a>, US based Magpi<\/a>, who just won a Kopernik award<\/a>, is helping organizations working in the Ebola response to replace their paper forms with digital forms that enumerators can fill out using their phones.<\/p>\n

      Digital forms not only save time and prevent errors when transcribing information, well designed digital forms also contain simple error checking routines such as \u201cyou can\u2019t be older than 100 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

      If you are interested in digital forms, check out the free and open source Kobo Toolbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Connecting the sick with their relatives using local Wi-Fi networks<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Elaine Burroughs, a Save the Children staff member who is also TechChange alumna of Mobiles for International Development<\/a>, shared that they are using their local Wi-Fi network to connect patients in the isolation ward with the relatives through video calls. Both computers have to be within the same network because local internet connections are too slow. In situations where video calls are not possible, they provide patients with cheap mobile phones so that they can talk with their relatives that way. Elaine added: \u201cSeveral survivors have told us that what kept them going was being able to speak with their family and not feel so isolated when surrounded by people in hazmat suits.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Sharing and receiving Ebola information via SMS text messages<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          I have heard about a number of different SMS systems that are currently being set up. Some are mainly to share information, others also to receive information.<\/p>\n

          mHero<\/a> is an SMS system specifically designed to share information with health workers. It works with UNICEF\u2019s RapidPro system<\/a>, a white label version of Kigali-based TextIt which is one of the best SMS communication systems I know.\u00a0RapidPro is also at the heart of a two-way communication system that is currently being set up by UNICEF, Plan International, and the Scouts.<\/p>\n

          The IFRC is of course using TERA to share SMS<\/a>, a system that was developed in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and already used in Sierra Leone during a recent cholera outbreak.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Mythbusting for diaspora communities via social media<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Social media also has a place, though not as much as some people think. With internet penetration at less than 5 per cent in Liberia and less than 2 per cent in Sierra Leone and Guinea, it is simply not relevant for most people \u2013 unlike radio for example. However, all of these countries have huge diasporas. The Liberian diaspora in the US alone is thought to be as many as 450,000 people strong \u2013 and they all have access to social media. Experiences from Haiti and the Philippines show that the diaspora is an important information channel for the people living in affected countries. Very often they assume that their relatives in the US or Europe will know more, not least because many don\u2019t trust their own governments to tell the truth.
            \nSocial media can play an important role in correcting misinformation and indeed,             both the WHO and the CDC are using their social media channels in this way<\/a>.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Supporting translations of Ebola information remotely online<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Last but not least, Translators Without Borders is helping NGOs remotely from all over the world to translate posters into local languages.<\/p>\n

              Low tech does it<\/strong><\/p>\n

              As a final word, I\u2019d like to add that while technology can make a real difference we must not forget that very often low tech solutions will be more efficient than high tech solutions \u2013 it depends on what is more appropriate for the context. So don\u2019t start an SMS campaign or launch a drone<\/a> just because you can. It\u2019s not about what you want to do. It\u2019s not about technology. It\u2019s about what\u2019s best for the people we are there to help.<\/p>\n

              We will be discussing these technology tools, Ebola, and many similar issues in TC103: Tech Tools and Skills for Emergency Management<\/a>. Register by October 31 and save $50 off the course.<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Do you have additional examples of how ICT is helping in the Ebola response? Please share them in the comments!<\/p>\n

              ____________________________<\/p>\n

              Timo Luege – <\/em>After nearly ten years as a journalist (online, print and radio), he worked a Senior Communications Officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva and Haiti for four years. He also launched the IFRC\u2019s social media activities and the\u00a0IFRC social media staff guidelines<\/a> before being a Protection Delegate in Liberia. He wrote the\u00a0UNICEF \u201cSocial Media in Emergency Guidelines\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and contributed to\u00a0UNOCHA\u2019s \u201cHumanitarianism in the Network Age\u201d<\/a>. Timo advised UNHCR- and IFRC-led Shelter Clusters in Myanmar, Mali and most recently the Philippines on Communication and Advocacy. He blogs at\u00a0Social Media for Good<\/a>\u00a0and is the facilitator for the TechChange online course, \u201cTech Tools & Skills for Emergency Management<\/a>\u201c.<\/em><\/p>\n

              This post originally appeared in <\/em>Social Media for Good<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

              Go to Original \u2013 techchange.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              In addition to the life saving work of medical staff, logisticians and community organizers, information and communication technology (ICT) is also playing a vital part in supporting their work. I pulled together six examples of how ICT is already making a difference in the current Ebola crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}