Effectiveness of mobile and e-mail-based reporting on consistency in private health facilities for the disease surveillance system, Poonamallee Health District, Tamil Nadu, India: A parallel group, exploratory randomized open trial.

Abstract

Lack of knowledge among private reporting units and inadequate information provided during notification led to poor reporting in India's surveillance system. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of two types of electronic systems (mobile and e-mail) for improving reporting to the Daily Disease Surveillance System (DDSS) from private health sector facilities in Poonamallee Health District, Tamil Nadu, India. We did an exploratory randomized, open trial with an equal allocation among all the private reporting units of DDSS. The data handlers from the reporting units were assigned to mobile or e-mail-based reporting after training. We measured and presented the consistency, completeness, timeliness, sensitivity, simplicity, acceptability, and usefulness as proportion. We randomized 43 of 52 reporting units into mobile (<i>n</i> = 22) or e-mail (<i>n</i> = 21)-based reporting. The consistency of reporting was higher in mobile (77% vs 62, <i>P</i> = 0.33). The completeness of reports was nearly equal (96% in mobile vs 94% in e-mail; <i>P</i> < 0.05). However, it was different in timeliness (92% vs 88%; <i>P</i> < 0.05). Time trends in reporting by weeks were not significant (<i>P</i> = 0.43). Sensitivity was higher in mobile (96% vs 93%). The mobile-based reporting group felt that the method was much easier (82% vs 62%), willing to use repeatedly (96% vs 81%), and found useful (64% vs 57%). Both e-mail and mobile interventions have equally improved the consistency of reporting. The mobile-based reporting method was found to be more consistent and complete and maintain timeliness compared to the e-mail-based reporting method.