Recipient Institution:
Medical Informatics Unit, College of Medicine,
University of the Philippines Manila

547 Pedro Gil StreetErmita,
Manila 1000
PHILIPPINES

Tel/Fax: 632-522-9231

Project Leader:
Prof. Herman D. Tolentino
hermant@I-manila.com.ph

URL:
http://www.upm.edu.ph/

Amount and Duration: US$ 22,642 / 9 months

Commencement Date:
1 January 2004

Abstract of Project
Injury control is a pressing problem in developing countries. Because injury affects the productive segments of society, it must be managed decisively. The most effective control method is prevention but this is premised on a good registry system. Data from this injury registry system will help policy-makers focus prevention programs on types of injuries that impact on the most number of people.

One of those most severely affected are children (WHO: <=18 years). This subset is vulnerable due to inexperience and do not have ready access to health care. To be able to improve injury prevention programs for children, a good injury registry is needed

Community-based data collection systems in resource-constrained societies have been difficult to implement. In this study, open-source tools from the Linux community combined with participative people-centric strategies will be employed to enable implementation of a child injury surveillance system by health workers.

This project proposes a reporting system has three main components: a short messaging system for reporting child injuries, the training of village health workers on injury surveillance, and a web-based graphical presentation system of injury data for decision makers. It will be implemented in an urban poor village as pilot. SMS has been chosen because of its widespread penetration in the Philippines and its wireless capabilities.

Currently there is no reported use of Short Messaging System for disease surveillance. The early detection of disease, which covers this study, is an emerging field in public health informatics.