Epihack Sri Lanka: development of a mobile surveillance tool for dengue fever

BACKGROUND: Dengue is a serious problem around the globe, with 3.9 billion people at risk of the disease. Sri Lanka has recently seen unprecedented rates of dengue with 4.3 times more cases than during the same period over the previous six years. The paper discusses the development of an integrated health systems framework, aided by mobile technology, to combat and contain dengue via a health hackathon in Sri Lanka. RESULTS: The framework addresses the key functions of surveillance, health communication and civic engagement through innovations including digitisation of hospital forms; digital aid to Public Health Inspectors (PHIs); data consolidation and analytics; education for construction workers, GPs, and schools; and educating the general public. CONCLUSIONS: We present the impact of the disease burden in tropical countries, such as Sri Lanka, current technological solutions, and the process of developing the mobile application modules developed via the health hackathon.