Data Sharing via SMS Strengthens Uganda's Health System
The health system in Uganda is highly decentralized and geographically dispersed, with thousands of health facilities spread across 112 districts. Low capacity for information sharing between distant health facilities and the centralized health ministry resulted in low stocks of life-saving medication for malaria, slow or inadequate responses to disease outbreaks, and misappropriated funds, among other issues. The Ugandan government, with the support of UNICEF, began leapfrogging this outmoded system in 2011 by introducing an SMS-based health reporting program called mTRAC. This program has supported significant improvements in Uganda’s health system, including halving of response time to disease outbreaks and reducing medication stockouts, the latter of which resulted in fewer malaria-related deaths. mTRAC has cost-effectively enhanced the quality and exchange of health data and strengthened the capacity of practitioners to use this data to improve health outcomes. The recurrent costs of the program are being taken on by the Government of Uganda and its success is being replicated in other low income countries, testifying to the value of investing in quality data and efficient data sharing enabled by mobile technology.
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