The Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS): Digital Health Global Goods Maturity Assessment

Daniel Tom-Aba,Carl Fourie,Gerard Krause,Carl Leitner,Juliane Doerrbecker,Chinedu Chukwujekwu Arinze,Martin Wahnschaffe,Bernard Chawo Silenou,Maté Strysewske

doi:10.2196/15860

Abstract

BackgroundDigital health is a dynamic field that has been generating a large number of tools; many of these tools do not have the level of maturity required to function in a sustainable model. It is in this context that the concept of global goods maturity is gaining importance. Digital Square developed a global good maturity model (GGMM) for digital health tools, which engages the digital health community to identify areas of investment for global goods. The Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) is an open-source mobile and web application software that we developed to enable health workers to notify health departments about new cases of epidemic-prone diseases, detect outbreaks, and simultaneously manage outbreak response.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the maturity of SORMAS using Digital Square’s GGMM and to describe the applicability of the GGMM on the use case of SORMAS and identify opportunities for system improvements.MethodsWe evaluated SORMAS using the GGMM version 1.0 indicators to measure its development. SORMAS was scored based on all the GGMM indicator scores. We described how we used the GGMM to guide the development of SORMAS during the study period. GGMM contains 15 subindicators grouped into the following core indicators: (1) global utility, (2) community support, and (3) software maturity.ResultsThe assessment of SORMAS through the GGMM from November 2017 to October 2019 resulted in full completion of all subscores (10/30, (33%) in 2017; 21/30, (70%) in 2018; and 30/30, (100%) in 2019). SORMAS reached the full score of the GGMM for digital health software tools by accomplishing all 10 points for each of the 3 indicators on global utility, community support, and software maturity.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, SORMAS is the first electronic health tool for disease surveillance, and also the first outbreak response management tool, that has achieved a 100% score. Although some conceptual changes would allow for further improvements to the system, the GGMM already has a robust supportive effect on developing software toward global goods maturity.

Highlights

OverviewDigital health is a dynamic field with a rapidly growing number of initiatives and tools, many of which operate in certain geographic areas and for a limited period [1]
Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) reached the full score of the global good maturity model (GGMM) for digital health software tools by accomplishing all 10 points for each of the 3 indicators on global utility, community support, and software maturity
We identified the GGMM to be a suitable concept in assessing the maturity of SORMAS for the following reasons: (1) GGMM has a particular focus on health software and on that being used in low-resource settings [12,13], (2) the objectives of GGMM matches well with the mission of SORMAS [12,13], and (3) the scope of most of the tools included in the GGMM guidebook fits that of SORMAS [12,13]

Summary

Introduction

Digital health is a dynamic field with a rapidly growing number of initiatives and tools, many of which operate in certain geographic areas and for a limited period [1]. In the field of public health, funding for such initiatives relies mostly on scarce public resources Many such parallel initiatives do not seem to be mature enough to survive their pilot phase, which makes it unfortunate. Digital health is a dynamic field that has been generating a large number of tools; many of these tools do not have the level of maturity required to function in a sustainable model It is in this context that the concept of global goods maturity is gaining importance. The Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) is an open-source mobile and web application software that we developed to enable health workers to notify health departments about new cases of epidemic-prone diseases, detect outbreaks, and simultaneously manage outbreak response

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion