The next time you fill up your gas tank, remember that the price per gallon is raw data—alone, it doesn't mean much. However, take into account what you paid last week, and the price of gas at nearby stations versus the money in your wallet, and you'll start to build knowledge: information you can act on. You'll begin seeing patterns, such as whether you pay more on certain days and at specific locations, or if you're burning through more gasoline than usual.In my experience, more than nine out of 10 suspected cases turn out to be negative for Ebola
During the outbreak, no one at Redemption could use the data to build a picture of what was going on inside the hospital, let alone the surrounding areas it serves. In other words, Ebola's spread couldn't be mapped, which is what's needed to stop it in its tracks. Since health workers couldn't see the patterns of the outbreak, they were forced to fly blind, reacting to the fires that need to be put out rather than forming a proactive strategy to halt Ebola's relentless advance. Not even those who collected the data had a good handle on what it meant on a larger scale.Without seeing a direct benefit of reporting the data, the staff wasn't given much, if any, incentive to deliver quality data to the government
The human factor also comes into play. People have established workflows and habits, which can be difficult to change. Even with mobile devices, health workers would still fill out paper forms because part of the medical system's reporting procedures required it. What mobile devices did, in effect, was provide more work and another piece of equipment to juggle. Such devices also introduce the need for training personnel.At one point, international technology experts deployed a mobile data solution—Magpi—to collect triage data using tablets at Redemption hospital, but the effort was quickly abandoned once the experts returned home."Everybody understands that there would be tremendous value in having the data digitally, and I think they drastically underestimate how jarring a change it would be operationally."
"There's a false dichotomy in thinking that just because people have access to technology now—where there's a phone, there's a tablet, there's something they could get ahold of—then we necessarily should collect data from them using that device," Busch said. "Really, the question is what's the right medium to collect data in any given situation. And there are plenty of times where I think we're going to find in the future where paper remains a great option, arguably the best option."Not only is paper a natural fit for the data collection process itself, but it's often a better fit for people. It's no secret that some of us still prefer scribbling notes onto pads. There may even be a cognitive benefit to sticking with papyrus' descendent. Researchers have found that people process information better when they write things down on paper instead of tapping away on devices.Of course, it's not enough to bolt-on technology to existing paper forms. We completely rethought the content and structure of the paperwork in use in Liberia, redesigning them to maximize efficiency and efficacy.The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation provided 10,000 smartphones to help data collection, but as of March, fewer than 1,000 had been deployed
A total of 80 forms were completed in the test. Scanning the forms to have their data pulled out automatically was 38 times faster than data entry completed by hand. While it took 153 minutes for the team to manually input the data, scanning the forms took only four minutes. Although accuracy for number-based data was roughly the same for both processes, letter-based data was 21 percent more accurate when scanned. And that's just the start. The forms could be optimized for even better results.Combating Ebola is not a simple issue. A lack of resources has a catastrophic effect on a medical system's ability to fight the virus. However, armed with the ability to quickly analyze data about the spread of the virus, even under-resourced medical operations have a better chance to curtail its transmission. And paper, as strange as it sounds, might just be the technology to empower those on the frontlines to fight back.Mahad Ibrahim, Ph.D, is a founder and managing partner of Gobee Group, LLC., a global social innovation design consultancy. Additional contributors to this post were Osvaldo Gomez Martinez, Ph.D, Jaspal S. Sandhu, Ph.D, Alexis Santos, and Shannon M. Hamilton. All photos courtesy Mahad Ibrahim.Modern Medicine is a series on Motherboard about how health care and medical technology can move forward so rapidly while still being stuck in the past. Follow along here.Not only is paper a natural fit for the data collection process itself, but it's often a better fit for people