Research and datacollection has been an integral part of Capacare´s approach to capacity building and health system strengthening from the beginning. Partnering with the Norwegian University of Sience and Technology we have been able to measure the programs impact on surgical productivity in Sierra Leone. Students and graduates have tediously documented the surgical procedures they have performed and reported anonymized data back to the organisation. St.Olavs Hospital in Trondheim has decided to help with this efforts by providing us with a grant dedicated to the development of an mobile application for data collection. The Trondheim-based company Checkware and app developer Andreas Kalstad will be responsible for the technical development of the android app. It will be customised to collect the specific information needed in a user-friendly interface that minimizes room for errors. Users in rural settings will be able to enter information into the application off line and bulk uploads whenever internet connection is available. Checkware has previously developed systems enabling patient self-reporting for health care organisations and clinical studies. They will also provide safe transmission and storage of all research data collected with the application. The first field testing in Sierra Leone will take place in the coming months and if everything goes according to plan, full-scale implementations should bee possible by the start of 2019. Capacare would like to thank St.Olavs for this opportunity and we look forward to putting the technology to use.
