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Using Mobile Phones to Collect End Line Evaluation Data for the Essential Drug Logistics System Pilot in Zambia Dr. Arturo Sanabria Wendy Nicodemus
Using Mobile Phones to Collect End Line Evaluation Data for the Essential Drug Logistics
System Pilot in Zambia
Dr. Arturo SanabriaWendy Nicodemus
Background
• Zambian MoH has invested substantial funds in the public sector drug system– Health centres continue to have difficulty accessing these
drugs and medical supplies
• MoH and key partners proposed a pilot project to improve drug availability at health centres and hospitals across Zambia
Goal of the PilotTest two different logistics system models to select one (or a
combination/variation) that can be rolled out nationally, in order to significantly improve the availability of key essential drugs at service
delivery sites
The Pilot ModelsSystem A
• District Store remains as stockholding point
• Districts submit consolidated orders every month and receive consolidated deliveries from MSL
VS
System B• District Store converted to cross-docking point
• Districts submit individual orders for each facility and receive goods packed for individual facilities
16 Pilot Districts and 8 Control Districts
Essential Drug Logistics System Pilot Evaluation• Facilities in pilot and control districts evaluated at
baseline and endline to determine impact
• Endline evaluation used mobile phones to collect data at 259 health facilities and district health offices in 16 pilot districts and 8 control districts
Methodology
• Mobile phones used to collect data, including:– Stock status at facility– Storage conditions at facility– Order fulfillment rate– Impact of training in logistics management
• Data from mobile phones sent to EpiSurveyor (www.episurveyor.org) for aggregation
• Data shared via the website to all partners involved
Lessons Learned
• Final results presented 5 days after last facility visit– Previous evaluations took a month to present final results
• Mobile phone use requires detail-oriented data management reviewing the online database regularly– Requires continuous review
of data– Need IT support to address
any bugs with the mobile phones
Lessons Learned
• Preliminary data analysis ongoing throughout evaluation
• Technology works best when mobile phone network is strong and can be transmitted to server immediately– When no mobile network,
data sent to server at a later point negating benefit of real-time data review
Conclusions
• Mobile phone technology for data collection is appropriate when conducting health facility level surveys.
• The technology is user-friendly and easy to train.
• This technology is not necessarily the appropriate tool for routine site-level data collection as it requires a reliable mobile network.
