A methodology for data collection and integration of e-Health records: A case study of Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania

Abstract

This research aims at developing an electronic data collection and integration tool for heterogeneous data in a low bandwidth environment. The article reports on modeling of a generic tool for collecting e-Health data using relational database. It also explores methodology of collecting Verbal Autopsy (VA) data using Mobile devices. The V-Model approach was deployed in developing the DLL. The document engineering approach was adopted to analyze both the property and conceptual model of the information context of the forms. The skipping pattern algorithm was developed and fifteen mapping controls were designed to handle any data format in the DLL. The model was prototyped using Verbal Autopsy forms. The model is found to be useful in collecting e-health data using mobile devices. The design of the DLL is loosely coupled to allow adaptation to digital data collection in biomedical field. In addition, five control classes in the DLL were able to handle more than 250 variables in a VA form.