Data & Visualization Tools to Track Ebola

I’ve received the following email (slightly edited for clarity):

Can anyone recommend a turnkey, full-service solution to help the Liberian government track the spread of Ebola and get this information out to the public? They want something that lets healthcare workers update info from mobile phones, and a workflow that results in data visualizations. They need quick solutions, not a list of tools and educational resources.

Thomas Karyah, who currently works at UNMIL and is an IT Consultant for the Ministry of Information, leads Liberia’s information response to the Ebola emergency and is urgently looking to setup an online platform to serve as a DataBank and Visualization System for the campaign.

Desired Outcomes

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  • A web-based platform to collate all Ebola ralated data taken by health workers around the country to give realtime situational update to anyone who logs on, including the very health workers in the field.
  • \t

  • Help stakeholders and interested parties know whether the battle against Ebola is being lost or won.
  • \t

  • Front-end data visualization system for those who want live statistics by county, regions fatality rate, concentration or to determine if a safe zone is really safe?

Technology:

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  • Mostly smart phones and tablets; on the handheld devices, 4G or GPRS internet service will be available in the field for health workers to send updates using simple online forms
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  • Backend cgi scripts can process data it and store in a database

As you most likely know, Liberia has just declared a state of emergency and this is a matter of the utmost urgency.

Thank you again for your time and quick reply.

My immediate response was to point to http://www.ushahidi.com – but there might be other tools/techniques.

Best we have a discussion in the comments here, and I’ll point them to this post, so that they can refer to it. This emergency can be an opportunity to examine the state of the art in this area.

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