The topline story from my Brazilian visit can be told with two maps that show the impact Dengue had in 2008 vs the current year 2009. Simply, the map is all red in 2008.
One year later, the incidence of Dengue per 100k of population has declined dramatically. This is a significant change and one the total community is very proud of.
The WHO says some 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the world’s population, are now at risk from dengue and estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year. The disease is now epidemic in more than 100 countries. (wikipedia)
After looking at more detailed charts and actually hearing the details of how it was done important lessons have been learned. Nokia’s Mobile Data Gathering initiative was at the heart of this success. By Mobile Data Gathering I mean on location data input supported with GPS using Nokia handsets. The key impact was response time and the elimination of paper and corresponding errors. I left feeling that the mosquitoes just didn’t get the breeding time this year. Any outbreak wasn’t discovered weeks later. Field results weren’t lost in the mail etc. By using mobile handsets cases and risk areas were caught much earlier, halting their spread.
I’ll share the technology side of the story separately as it applies to many situations. I was also impressed with the INdT mobile integration and the use of SMS, Internet etc. It’s a solution that can work across almost any environment. Most importantly projects like this show a quick and efficient return. They have human benefits, save lives, make jobs easier and more accurate and the pioneers are recognizing there is literally hundreds of cases where the same type of approach can work.
I’ve personally gone from “Twitter’s” important to being more clear in my mind about what mobile data must mean to the organization and enterprise. The gains will be even more dramatic in third world countries. However, those that already think their business is “fast enough” on response times better check to see if they are instantaneous. I also saw additional ways that the “data” collection could be made more fun and rewarding. That can come with time.
Note while the data-gathering was accelerated the samples (mosquitoes) were still collected in the field and sent back to the lab. I came across another project today where the cell phones were used as mini-microscopes and blood work analysis was being completed in the field.
Overall I learned about empowering people with real-time distributed feedback. I’m also certain that GPS on mobiles can’t come fast enough now. Even on the lowest end mobiles GPS with SMS will revolutionize communications. We’ve spent long enough thinking about map mashups. That’s really just an output of a sensor net or the dawning of the sensor or sensing economy.
A YouTube video from last year also shares this story. I’ll be sharing more about the team behind this story in another post.
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Hi, interested in this and tried to make contact with the programme earlier in the year following discussions with Nokia in the UK. We provide and S60 tracking app that allows ‘job’ locations to be posted and reviewed, devices to be tracked in the field etc. Don’t know if it’s of any use to you? Cheers. Chris