The TAZAMA Experience: Electronic Data Capture Systems

Presented by Akum Aveika Tazama Project

Mobile Data Collection Seminar27 September 2013

Background and rationale• TAZAMA is based at National Institute for Medical Research,

Mwanza, Tanzania, and operates:– Demographic Surveillance System (DSS), a longitudinal platform for – Verbal Autopsy (VA) cause of death study– HIV Serological and Sexual Behaviour Survey (SS)– Links to government-run clinic services

• Electronic Data Capture (EDC) adopted in response to problems of data quality, integrity and timeliness

• EDC aims to improved data quality through– immediate (preliminary) data editing – prompt provision of feedback to interviewers– to facility for resolution of inconsistencies

EDC in TAZAMA – General Principles

• Key data into data capture application during interview or measurement

• Use CSPro* application with validity checks during data entry (census and survey Processing System)

• Upload data to main office servers for storage and further management

* Data management utilities developed by US census bureau and other collaborators.

Range of our EDC applications

• EDC used in 3 types of data collection: – DSS: simple household census with GIS (20 questions),

employs 11 field workers in 7 villages, twice yearly – VA: bereaved households visited by interviewer for

symptom check (500 questions with complex skips)– Sero Survey: all adults invited to temporary village

clinics for blood tests, structured survey of behaviour and service use (250 questions with complex skips), provision of clinical and counselling services – once every 3 years

DSS equipment PDAs(Personal Digital Assistants )

• PDA (Nomads) retain power for 12hrs and require 4hrs to be recharged to maximum

• Portable and robust, can stand the hazards of transport and weather in the field

• PDAs are equipped with GPS facility, can take photos and read barcodes

• Preloaded with data from previous round with details of expected household members

DSS enumeration using Nomad PDA

DSS system

• PDAs are assigned to 11 field workers who are deployed for DSS activities in 7 different villages

• Data entry system protects against invalid entries during household update

• Newly collected data are uploaded daily onto the server at the main office, data for following day’s fieldwork is downloaded

• Further consistency checks are done as batch edits in the office and errors returned to the field

DSS challenges

• Keeping PDAs charged demands well organized team• Interview staff need higher skills and must take

responsibility for equipment• Displays one question at time so inconvenient to

refer to responses from previous questions• PDA not appropriate for large questionnaire if

additional data need to be collected in a round• Rigorous file management system needs to be

developed by experienced specialist programmers

Verbal Autopsy• Death report in DSS triggers follow-up home visit by

clinically trained interviewer • List of household addresses requiring VA visit is

downloaded from server• Netbook version of standard WHO VA questionnaire

produced using CSPro• Data (single file per person) uploaded to server for

further management• Batch edit reports of stored data before running

diagnostic software

VA challenges

• Data upload and file management• Charging of spare battery• Bugs in file handling resulted in duplicate

records

Sero Survey: Activities• Main office (preparatory):– pre-printing invitation and consent documents

• Clinic based (daily):– registration, identification and consent– specimen collection and physiological measurement– confidential interviews – clinical and dispensing services, counselling

• Main office (overnight):– synchronize data files with drop box and server– charging all batteries– management of daily clinic and lab supplies

Sero-survey equipment and forms• Each clinic has 2 netbooks for registration, 7 for

interviewers, and a data manager’s laptop connected through a temporary wireless LAN

• Other IT equipment: router, generator, chargers, bar code scanners, spare batteries and solar panels

• Paper forms still needed for consent, referral, documentation of lab samples

• Barcode ID pre-printed on (main) consent form with matched labels for attaching to other documents

• Onward use forms (referral, lab control) also have pre-printed barcodes

Overview of net book data collection system used in HIV sero-survey

Sero Survey Data Management• Netbooks set up to allow for log-on use by all

potential users• All netbooks transmitted data to all the other

netbooks and to the data manager’s laptop as well as backing up on a memory card

• Batch data editing program is supposed to run before participant leaves clinic

• Identification system designed to capture DSS household ID for those coming without identification and for those recently moving household

HIV Sero-survey data collection interviewer using net book PC

Sero-survey challenges

• Charging of spare batteries over night• Failure of Solar panels• Theft of memory cards• Failure to upload completely to dropbox and

server jeopardizing file management• Omission of batch edit runs at remote site• Corrupt transfer of data between netbooks• Netbook operating system – Window 7 Starter –

requires frequent resetting of passwords

Before Starting EDC

• Complete development and testing of all applications and equipment to ensure they give the desired outcome

• Allow for proper training and piloting• Test duration of batteries for various equipment and rate

power requirement • Have SOP on all procedures including 1 for daily feedback• Ensure close supervision of activities at start • Prevent system settings being changed by unauthorized users• Netbooks and laptops must be restricted for hook up to only

authorized networks