Disease outbreaks present a major challenge in most developing countries. In the Philippines,
for instance, records from the Department of Health indicate that there is a variety of health disease outbreaks that occurred. These diseases include malaria, dengue fever, measles, typhoid fever, leptospirosis, diarrhoea, HIV, cholera and rabies, among others. While a number of health intervention progr
ams are already implemented by various agencies these pandemics still remain a challenge because of a shortage of healthcare professionals serving the unserved and underserved communities and lack of awareness. The exponential growth of mobile communication in developing countries, including the Philippines, offers a new opportunity for providing health related services to the unserved and underserved populace. According to a UN report in 2010, among those who were left behind because of ‘digital divide’, billions now have access to reliable technology (Vital Wave Consulting, 2010). One of the most promising area in mobile communication is health informatics, particularly, disease and outbreak tracking through mobile applications. In the Philippines, there has been scant development
utilizing mobile technologies for health interventions in small communities (barangay level). This project aims to determine whether new accessible mobile technologies can be applied to extend health related services in a community (i.e. It intends to engage the community to get involve in early disease detection and outbreak prevention by means of facilitating access to relevant health information and resources. Specifically, this project aims to assist barangay health workers (BHW) and barangay officials to gather and disseminate health information, services and activities to its constituent through mobile communication. This type of solution is commonly known as mobile government or mobile governance (mGov). The goals of this project will be achieved through the development of a mobile application using participatory approach and agile methodologies that allows the target community to collaborate
with system developers to articulate their needs regarding the required application.
