A DISTRIBUTED HEALTH MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR QUALITY DATA FAIRIFICATION A CASE STUDY OF VODAN-AFRICA INITIATIVE

Abstract

Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN) started as a child of necessity to enable access to critical data needed from Africa to fight the novel Coronavirus. The initiative set out question to answer how data can be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). The initiative discretely shared systems to some health facilities for data collection to answer the FAIR question but the aim was not achieved. A Distributed Hash Table (DHT) architecture was implemented to achieve the distributed system, this distributed system creates a FAIR Data Point (FDP) for data FAIRification. The localized CEDAR was used to create the template for data collection while an open-source app (Kobocollect) was link and used by the data stewards to collect data from the health facilities. Data stewards collected data from the various health facilities to help achieve the quality data for the system. The Naïve Bayes algorithm was used to determine the independency of the data while the K-Nearest Neighbour algorithm was used to show the relation of the data. The 2 algorithms were used to achieve the objectives of identifying the type of data. A distributed system was implemented which allows for data to be viewed by users using an ODK of the Kobocollect. As health data is supposed to be confidential, a security was put in place to secure the health data from unauthorized users. A back up system was also put into consideration in case of any data loss. Identification of data becomes easy for researchers as the similarities and differences of the data was shown in the study. In conclusion, a distributed system was designed to replace the existing discrete system used in data collection with the objectives of having quality data for data FAIRification. The distributed system is then used as the FDP for data FAIRification for researchers and policy makers. This has curbed the stress of collecting data from individual health facilities in terms of research, study, reference or policy making.