A Mobile App and Dashboard for Early Detection of Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Development Study

BACKGROUND: Outbreaks of infectious diseases pose great risks, including hospitalization and death, to public health. Therefore, improving the management of outbreaks is important for preventing widespread infection and mitigating associated risks. Mobile health technology provides new capabilities that can help better capture, monitor, and manage infectious diseases, including the ability to quickly identify potential outbreaks. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a new infectious disease surveillance (IDS) system comprising a mobile app for accurate data capturing and dashboard for better health care planning and decision making. METHODS: We developed the IDS system using a 2-pronged approach: a literature review on available and similar disease surveillance systems to understand the fundamental requirements and face-to-face interviews to collect specific user requirements from the local public health unit team at the Nepean Hospital, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, New South Wales, Australia. RESULTS: We identified 3 fundamental requirements when designing an electronic IDS system, which are the ability to capture and report outbreak data accurately, completely, and in a timely fashion. We then developed our IDS system based on the workflow, scope, and specific requirements of the public health unit team. We also produced detailed design and requirement guidelines. In our system, the outbreak data are captured and sent from anywhere using a mobile device or a desktop PC (web interface). The data are processed using a client-server architecture and, therefore, can be analyzed in real time. Our dashboard is designed to provide a daily, weekly, monthly, and historical summary of outbreak information, which can be potentially used to develop a future intervention plan. Specific information about certain outbreaks can also be visualized interactively to understand the unique characteristics of emerging infectious diseases. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the design and development of our IDS system. We suggest that the use of a mobile app and dashboard will simplify the overall data collection, reporting, and analysis processes, thereby improving the public health responses and providing accurate registration of outbreak information. Accurate data reporting and collection are a major step forward in creating a better intervention plan for future outbreaks of infectious diseases.