New Trends in Mobile Computing: Medical Applications and Localization

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New Trends in Mobile Computing Medical
Applications and Localization

• Solomon Atnafu, PhD
• Department of Computer Science,
• Addis Ababa University
• satnafu_at_cs.aau.edu.et

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• Outline
• Overview
• Trends in Mobile Applications
• Case Mobile Applications
• mHealth Applications,
• Localization Examples
• Recommendations

3
Overview

• Mobile computing
• A computing facility with a feature of mobility.
  A computer is expected to be transported during
  normal usage.
• Three aspects of Mobile Computing
• mobile communication,
• mobile hardware, and
• mobile software.

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mobile hardware
1973
2009/10

• Development

5

• Wireless Communication Technology Developments

From the age of telegraph to ad-hoc networks
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• 2. Trends in Mobile Applications

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Mobile Phone Based Applications
RapidSMS availing almost Real-time data to
decision makers from any corner of a country via
SMS based Application (introduced by UNICEF).

• Mobile phones for data collection and delivery of
  information from remote sites

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Open Data Kit (ODK)

• By a group at the University of Washington
  supported by Google
• Mobile Internet Access, Web-based,
• Allows to capture, submit, store and report data
  as diverse as text, video, audio, images,
  barcodes, and GPS readings.
• Kenya- HIV treatment program in a home-based
  testing and counseling program,
• Brazil- forest tree inventory
• Uganda- customers data collection

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sana

• Sana is a standard-focused open-source system
  that supports audio, images, location-based data,
  text, and in the future, video for telemedicine
  and other relevant applications.

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What is the Problem?

• Efficiency,
• Communication,
• Mobility,
• Coverage
• Economical advantage

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3. Case Mobile ApplicationsDepartment of
Computer Science,Addis Ababa University

• Epidemic and Communicable Disease Surveillance
  Data Reporting and Medical Cases Communication
  System by Solomon Atnafu, Andualem Workneh,
  Yonan Getachew.
• Mobile Health and Demographic-Data Reporting and
  Communication System a mHealth system for the
  Case of the Butajira Rural Health Program by
  Solomon Atnafu, Andualem Workneh, Yonan Getachew.
• The ??? Virtual Ethiopic Keyboard for Smart
  Phones by Andualem Workneh, Yonan etachew,
  Solomon Atnafu,
• Perpetual Ethiopic Calendar, Organizer and Diary
  System for Android Based Smart Phones Zenebe
  Nigussie and Solomon Atnafu,

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Epidemic and Communicable Disease Surveillance
Data Reporting and Medical Cases Communication
System

• Solomon Atnafu, Andualem Workneh, Yonan Getachew
• emails satnafu_at_gmail.com, alemfree_at_yahoo.com,
  yonangetachew_at_gmail.com
• Addis Ababa University

November 10, 2010 M4D 2010, Kampala, Uganda
This project is partially supported by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
through the UNECA-Finland Cooperation for ICT
Development in Africa.
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The Current Practice

• Existing Practice Analyzed
• (Data Collected from the Public Health Emergency
  Management Center of the Ethiopian Health and
  Nutrition Resource Institute, FMoH).
• Data collection formats acquired (Case based
  Reporting Format, Epidemic Disease Reporting
  Formats)
• Cases are reported using paper based formats
• health extension workers ? health center ?
  Woreda health office ? Regional health bureau ?
  FMoH.
• Currently, about twenty communicable diseases
  were identified and are under close surveillance,
• Some of them need to be reported immediately,
  others on weekly basis,

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Problems Identified

• Depending on the case reporting can be by
  telephone,
• But, there are places where there is no telephone
  access,
• Sending completed reports to the desired site is
  time taking,
• Disease cases may be reported after a long delay,
  
• Delayed reporting of cases is too costly and
  very sensitive,
• Manual data analysis is error prone and time
  consuming,
• Even though the report reaches on time, analysis
  may take time since it requires data entry of all
  forms received,
• Entering the paper based data in to computer
  applications (ex. Excel) is also error prone and
  a time consuming task,
• The need for efficient data collection and
  analysis is high!

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• Requirement Analysis Conducted, Actors Identified.

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Implementation

• Selection of the Development Environment
• The client device (the mobile phone device)
  selected
• Android OS based phone,
• Criterion
• Free and Open Source OS,
• Future trend of development and application,
• Localization capability,
• Availability of applications,
• Others Handset layouts, Storage, Connectivity,
  Messaging, Web browser, Java support, Media
  support, Development environment, Market, support
  of manufacturers, etc.

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Development of the Client System
The icon of the application Installed on the phone
List of functionalities of the application on the
mobile phone
Case Reporting form with save and send options
The first Screen of the Application
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The Server Side system

• Basic functionalities of the server side system
• The type of message can be Medical case reporting
  or assistance request, so it identifies the type
  of message accepted and store appropriately.
• A number of messages are expected to be received
  at a time, Therefore the system should be able to
  manage this.
• Provide a two way communication between the
  client (mobile phones in the fields) and the
  server. This includes sending messages, receiving
  messages and providing communication history
  where the sent and received messages can be
  viewed.
• Keep track of the contact details of the users
  who communicate with the system.
• Different users with different access levels will
  use the web application, therefore manage the
  users of the system and provide security.

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Server Side System Components

• User Manager
• Logging in to the System
• Using the User Manager
• Creating New User/Contact
• Editing User/Contact
• Message Manager
• Sending SMS messages
• View Sent Messages
• Receiving SMS Messages
• Forms Manager
• Viewing Editing Received Forms
• Report Generator

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Some screenshots of the server side Interfaces
Received Form List
Custom Report
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• Contributions
• Instant delivery of reports,
• Rapid communication Between professionals and
  field workers,
• Zero data entry time,
• Zero or highly reduced error rate,
• Higher transparency and accountability,
• Medical assistant (Tele-consultation), build
  confidence on quality of data, instant delivery
  of critical messages to field workers,
• Highly simplified and fast report generation,
• Opens the way for other similar applications.

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The ??? Virtual Ethiopic Keyboard for Smart
Phones 

• Andualem Workneh, Yonan Getachew, Gedion TAMENE,
  Solomon Atnafu,
• emails, alemfree_at_yahoo.com, yonangetachew_at_gmail.c
  om, gedion_tamene_at_yahoo.com , satnafu_at_gmail.com

Addis Ababa University
November 11, 2010 M4D 2010, Kampala, Uganda
This project is partially supported by UNECA
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• The Ethiopic Character Set
• Amharic is the working language of the federal
  government of Ethiopia (a country with a
  population of more than 80 million) and is spoken
  and written as a first or second language in many
  parts of the country.
• Among the other languages that use Ethiopic
  script are Tigrigna, Guragegna, Agewigna, and
  many other languages in the southern region of
  Ethiopia.
• Tigrigna is a language for about nine million
  people particularly in Tigrai region of Ethiopia
  and in Eretria.

• Virtual keyboards For mobile computing devices -
  The virtual keyboard fits on their small screen
  size, hence the best choice in many situations.

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The Challenges Keyboard design

• Keyboard Mapping and Input Methods (Many Efforts
  since the 1980s)

• Standard Keyboard Mapping
• Typewriter layout,
• Phonetic layout

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• Advantage
• As a result of many efforts Ethiopic is Unicode
  supported.
• Ethiopic Unicode (1200 137F)

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The mobile phone input method design
By Shiferaw Abebe, Solomon Atnafu and Samuel
Kinde, Department of Computer Science, Addis
Ababa University
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• Virtual Ethiopic Keyboard
• - System Layout Design

Figure Proposed Layout for the virtual Ethiopic
keyboard
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Implementation

• The System Development Environment
• Android operating system based smart phones are
  selected.
• The basic reasons to choose Android platform are
  that
• It uses Freetype, a free and open source bitmap
  and vector font engine, which supports Unicode
  text layout and glyph rendering. Ethiopic Unicode
  fonts, such as Microsoft's Nyala and GFZ's Geez
  Free Zemen, can be used to render text using
  Freetype on the Android platform. Other platforms
  such as the Palm OS lack the internationalization
  support required to fully meet the needs of
  Ethiopic software development.
• It comes with immediate availability to mobile
  versions of Google search, Google Maps, and
  Google Products that allow independent developers
  to create their own array of applications at a
  much less restrictive cost.

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Virtual Ethiopic Keyboard System (VEK)
Figure VEK on Android Emulator
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Figure on the Android based HTC G1 smart phone
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Figure (A)-The panel for Ethiopic and Amharic
numerals and Mathematical symbols (B)- the
Virtual QWERTY keyboard.
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Contribution

• YES, WE CAN?
• YES Technology can and should embrace culture,
• a virtual keyboard layout is designed for more
  than 340 Ethiopic characters,
• multi-script text writing is supported, users can
  switch between our VEK and the Virtual QWERTY
  keyboard.
• Any mobile application can be localized,
• Opens the way to include other smart phones, such
  as Nokia and other mobile operating systems.

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Mobile Health- and Demographic-Data Reporting and
Communication System for the Butajira Rural
Health Project

• By
• Solomon Atnafu, Project Manager
  (satnafu_at_gmail.com)
• Andualem Workneh, Developer
• Yonan Getachew, Developer

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 2010
This project is partially supported by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
through the UNECA-Finland Cooperation for ICT
Development in Africa.
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• The BRHP aimed to
• Assess the fertility, mortality, nuptiality and
  migration trends and determinants
• Analyze public health and health behavioral
  determinants of mortality
• Assess the coverage and utilization of health
  services in the area in relation to health needs
  of the people
• Build and strengthen research and training
  capacity and
• Develop local capacity in the prevention and
  control of disease.

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• Current Practice Reporting and Data Collection
• Manual data collected on paper based forms,
  compiling, analysis and reporting

• What are the problems?
• Sending completed reports of the enumerators from
  Rural Kebeles to to Woreda Health Posts, or to
  higher health offices and then to a central
  project office is time taking,
• cases that need immediate interventions may be
  reported after a long delay, while delayed
  reporting of cases could be too costly and very
  sensitive,
• Even though the report reaches on time, analysis
  may take time since it requires data entry of all
  the forms received,
• Entering the paper based data in to computer
  applications is also error prone and time
  consuming task,
• As a result, an obvious question of efficiency is
  on the air

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Analysis and Design conducted
Requirement Analysis . . .
use cases diagram

• The Butajira Rural Health Program-
• Actors interaction and operations

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• Implementation

• The client side
• An Android based smart Phone,
• With virtual Ethiopic keyboard and mobile virtual
  QWERTY keyboard,
• Data can be collected in both Amharic and English
  languages,
• The Server Side
• A server with MySQL database,
• Reports can be generated in a required format,
• web based interface to allow medical
  professionals and the system administrator have
  access to the system,

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Client Side Mobile Health- and Demographic-Data
Reporting and Communication System - Some
screenshots
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Server Side System Components

• User Manager
• Logging in to the System
• Using the User Manager
• Creating New User/Contact
• Editing User/Contact
• Message Manager
• Sending SMS messages
• View Sent Messages
• Receiving SMS Messages
• Forms Manager
• Viewing Editing Received Forms
• Report Generator

Screen shot of Birth Form List
Screen shot of Birth Report
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• Contributions
• Instant delivery of reports,
• Rapid communication Between professionals and
  field workers,
• Almost Zero data entry time,
• Zero or highly reduced error rate,
• Higher transparency and accountability,
• Medical assistant (Tele-consultation), build
  confidence on quality of data, instant delivery
  of critical messages to field workers,
• Highly simplified and fast report generation,
• Enables faster decision making,
• Amharic Virtual Ethiopic Keyboard for Android
  Phones,
• Localization of the Android Phone,
• Development of the Mobile Health- and
  Demographic-Data Reporting and Communication
  System,
• Opens the way for other similar applications.

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• ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY
• DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
• SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
• MASTERS PROJECT DEFENCE
• Perpetual Ethiopic and European Calendar and
  Organizer System for an Android Based Smart
  Phones.
• By Zenebe Nigussie
• Advisor Solomon Atnafu (PhD)
• June 24, 2010

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The Ethiopian Calendar system

• Ethiopian Calendar system is based on solar
  system having 365 or 366 (during leap year) days
  per year.
• It has 13 months, 12 of them with 30 days each
  and one month with 5 or 6 (leap year) days per
  year.
• Religious Holidays
• Christian Holidays
• Muslim Holidays
• National Holiday (Non-Religious)

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Analysis and Design

• For the development of the system different
  requirements are identified.
• The functional requirements that identified are
  represented in the use case shown next slide.
• The architecture of the system that meets the
  requirements of the system is depicted in the
  next slide.

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Implementation

• In order to generate the perpetual Ethiopian with
  the corresponding Gregorian calendar the
  algorithm is developed and implemented.
• To determine the date of the holidays, whose date
  appears at different date from year to year,
  algorithm is developed and implemented.
• Based on the Ethiopian calendar
  organizer/scheduler and diary system is developed
  that support Amharic text.

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• Select year

Select month
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Diary/schedule or plan
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Contributions

• The main contribution of this project is
• Algorithm is generate that generate the Ethiopian
  calendar
• Algorithm is developed that convert Ethiopian
  date to European date and compute Ethiopian
  holydays
• Architecture of the calendar, organizer and diary
  system.
• Developed perpetual Ethiopic and Gregorian
  calendar based on the algorithms
• Designed and implemented organizer/scheduler and
  diary system for Android phone that support
  Ethiopic script

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4. Recommendations

• Create awareness (decision makers, medical
  personnel, practitioners, students, women, in
  Schools, etc.),
• Select the appropriate mobile devices for your
  Application (Cost/Benefit, future trends, etc.)
• Adopt to Local needs (in African context,
  localization)
• Exploit the potential of mobile computing,
• Adopt applications to reality of being mobile,

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??????? ?

• Thank You ?