Mobile tools for point-of-care diagnostics in the developing world

Abstract

Remote health monitoring and disease detection in the developing world are hampered by a lack of accurate, convenient and affordable diagnostic tests. Many of the tests routinely administered in well-equipped clinical laboratories are inappropriate for the settings encountered at the point of care, where low-income patients may be best served. To address this problem, medical researchers have developed innovative rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) that are capable of detecting diseases at the point of care within a single patient visit to a clinic. However, for these new diagnostic technologies to be effective, tools must be developed to support the health workers who will be responsible for administering the tests and interpreting their results. This paper describes the design and initial implementation of ODK Diagnostics, a smartphone application that supports health workers in three ways: (1) by facilitating the creation of digital job aids that provide in-context assistance to users administering RDTs, (2) by automatically interpreting the test results and delivering the diagnosis, and (3) by automating the data collected regarding the type and outcome of the test. Our technical evaluation suggests that the system is capable of accurately reading RDT results and is ready to be field tested with health workers to ensure that it is usable and appropriate for point-of-care settings in developing countries.