October 20th, 2008
Unfortunately, I am still in the midst of negotiating my way through Sri Lankan politics. The good news is that Dr. Daniel came to the DAPH on Friday and we have arranged to give a presentation to the entire department, including the director general, the associate director general, the director of animal production and health and others in the department. The meeting is scheduled for next Thursday.
I am very much hoping that it will help to get things moving. My biggest concern at this stage of the game is time and the fact that we’re starting to run low on it. These last two weeks were to have been spent meeting with field veterinary surgeons and district veterinarians, getting their input on the structure of the surveillance system prior to it being finalized, and bringing the research assistant up to spend. At this stage I have yet to meet with any field veterinary surgeons, and cannot do so, I am told, until after the meeting next Thursday, and the project is without a research assistant, whose job is to ensure the entire system continues to run while myself and Colin Robertson are in Canada. I am reassured that my situation exemplifies the experiences of others attempting to carry out similar projects. They also tell me that I am in fact making significant progress and that things look at their worst before the situation becomes more organized. I’m really hoping this is the case.
For those interested in further background on the surveillance system we have designed and hope to implement I will refer you to the following website: www.datadyne.org. This organization, in partnership with the WHO, the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation , has designed Episurveyor, a software suite that enables collection of public health data on handheld devices and its transmission via the telecommunication network. This allows for collection and analysis of public health data in near-real time, as well as data transmission from remote areas. In brief, our plan is to provide handheld devices to forty veterinarians. Each device will contain a form, built in Episurveyor, which will permit collection of information on farm visits. Each time a veterinarian visits a farm they will fill out this form and at the end of the day the data from all farm visits will be transmitted to a central database. Data will be made available through a web-based interface, allowing appropriate stakeholders to access the information as needed and monitor for changes in the animal health situation on a daily basis.