Fall 2008 Issue
Mobile Technology Helps Fight Disease in Earthquake-torn China
CDC Foundation Facilitates Donation of 500 HP Handheld Computers
Six CDC scientists were scheduled to leave for China in just two days. Officials from China’s CDC were reporting that public health facilities in Sichuan province had been demolished by the May 2008 earthquake and that they had very limited capacity to assess the region’s health needs or monitor for potential disease outbreaks. The U.S. CDC experts were planning to work with their counterparts at China’s CDC to rapidly get a health surveillance system up and running by using mobile technology for data collection.
Using mobile technology for surveillance is still an emerging idea in public health, and neither U.S. CDC nor China CDC had enough handheld computers to get the job done. Even if the U.S. team could work through the necessary government process to obtain the handheld PDA units they needed, they did not know how they would get them to China quickly enough through diplomatic channels. So, CDC asked the CDC Foundation for help.
The Foundation was ready to use funds from its Global Disaster Response Fund to help purchase the handheld units, but first reached out to partner organizations to see if the units might be secured through an in-kind gift. The Foundation immediately contacted corporate leaders at HP. HP had previously donated equipment to CDC through the Foundation to meet needs following the 2004 tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. HP leaders quickly agreed to donate 500 HP iPAQ Travel Companions with GPS technology, valued at approximately $300,000, and ship them directly to China CDC in Beijing. The units arrived within one week of the U.S. CDC team, so they were able to begin helping Chinese scientists re-establish a health surveillance network almost immediately.
“HP and its employees have a long history of helping those in need,” said Isaiah Cheung, vice president and general manager, Personal Systems Group, HP China and Hong Kong. “The public health surveillance system, supported by HP iPAQ GPS travel companions, will go a long way toward preventing Sichuan earthquake survivors from suffering additional pain due to disease.”
Microsoft also donated handheld mobile devices directly to CDC China, and, working with the CDC Foundation, USGlobalSat, Inc., a subsidiary of GPS manufacturer GlobalSat Technology of Taiwan, provided wireless Bluetooth GPS receivers to ensure that the devices donated by Microsoft had the GPS capabilities health teams required.
Says Leslie A. Lenert, M.D., M.S., director of CDC’s National Center for Public Health Informatics, “With the new system we helped them design, and with equipment donations organized by the CDC Foundation, China CDC now is able to quickly collect public health data in earthquake-affected areas where communications capacity has been destroyed and send it to China CDC headquarters for analysis. This allows China CDC to rapidly get the right resources to the right places to save lives by preventing or reducing disease and injury.”
As efforts in China have shifted from emergency response to recovery, the health and well-being of an estimated 5 million displaced persons and the rebuilding of health system infrastructure have become chief concerns. Mobile technology with geographic information systems (GIS), like the handheld units donated by HP and the components donated by USGlobalSat, Inc., can be used to collect data, map locations of clinics and shelters and transmit critical information for rapid analysis. CDC will continue to provide technical assistance and expertise as China works to prevent disease outbreaks and rebuild the public health system in Sichuan province.
Read more articles from Fall 2008 issue of theFrontLine newsletter