Big Data to Improve Public Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 410-432
Author(s):  
Songul Cinaroglu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Promising Area ◽  
Data Ecosystem ◽  
Low And Middle Income

The field of public health provides a multidisciplinary area of research, and new challenges in analytics and operations management are reshaping the strategic decision-making dynamics. Big data is an emerging and promising area of research that has great potential to transform public health. Developed countries are designing big data tools and analytic techniques and using them to provide leadership. In this respect, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need to become more engaged in the big data ecosystem and to become more aware of how to use new analytical techniques. This chapter provides an overview of big data analytic techniques in public health and their potential to transform strategic public health management in LMICs. To achieve this goal, this chapter explains big data analytics and big data tools in public health and discusses development strategies for LMIC's big public data potential to ensure a better knowledge base for LMIC health policymakers.

Big Data to Improve Public Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-110
Author(s):  
Songul Cinaroglu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Promising Area ◽  
Data Ecosystem ◽  
Low And Middle Income

The field of public health provides a multidisciplinary area of research, and new challenges in analytics and operations management are reshaping the strategic decision-making dynamics. Big data is an emerging and promising area of research that has great potential to transform public health. Developed countries are designing big data tools and analytic techniques and using them to provide leadership. In this respect, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need to become more engaged in the big data ecosystem and to become more aware of how to use new analytical techniques. This chapter provides an overview of big data analytic techniques in public health and their potential to transform strategic public health management in LMICs. To achieve this goal, this chapter explains big data analytics and big data tools in public health and discusses development strategies for LMIC's big public data potential to ensure a better knowledge base for LMIC health policymakers.

Opportunities and Challenges for Implementing Neurotrauma Prevention Program: A Practical Perspective for Developing Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (02/03) ◽  
pp. 077-081
Author(s):  
Amrita Ghosh ◽  
Ranabir Pal ◽  
Luis Rafael Moscote-Salazar ◽  
Huber Said Padilla-Zambrano ◽  
Harsh Deora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Literature Research ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Literature Searches ◽  
Low And Middle Income

AbstractNeurotrauma is an underestimated and less understood public health issue in low- and middle-income countries for which we need system-based approach to prevention plans. This study was initiated to find rationale of effective plan with projectile vision of neurotrauma prevention. In search of innovative ideas of neurotrauma prevention evidence was explored from the published literature research on traumatic brain injury. Evidence-based global guidelines on recommended content and scheduling on prevention of neurotrauma literature searches data were also synthesized and summarized from research in developed countries. Our study noted that a considerable number of victims of neurotrauma with death and disabilities put mammoth costs to the already compromised health systems of the low- and middle-income countries. We need systems-based four-pronged approach incorporating neurotrauma registry, neurotrauma surveillance, translational research programs, and current approved process for development of clinical guidelines for prevention.

scholarly journals The impact of COVID-19 on the care of people living with noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries: an online survey of physicians and pharmacists in nine countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Bullen ◽  
Jessica McCormack ◽  
Amanda Calder ◽  
Varsha Parag ◽  
Kannan Subramaniam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
World Health ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Abstract Background: The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where people may have limited access to affordable quality care, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to have a particularly adverse impact on the health and healthcare of individuals with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A World Health Organization survey found that disruption of delivery of healthcare for NCDs was more significant in LMICs than in high-income countries. However, the study did not elicit insights into the day-to-day impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare by front-line healthcare workers (FLHCWs). Aim: To gain insights directly from FLHCWs working in countries with a high NCD burden, and thereby identify opportunities to improve the provision of healthcare during the current pandemic and in future healthcare emergencies. Methods: We recruited selected frontline healthcare workers (general practitioners, pharmacists, and other medical specialists) from nine countries to complete an online survey (n = 1347). Survey questions focused on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice and NCDs; barriers to clinical care during the pandemic; and innovative responses to the many challenges presented by the pandemic. Findings: The majority of FLHCWs responding to our survey reported that their care of patients had been impacted both adversely and positively by the public health measures imposed. Most FLHCs (95%) reported a deterioration in the mental health of their patients. Conclusions: Continuity of care for NCDs as part of pandemic preparedness is needed so that chronic conditions are not exacerbated by public health measures and the direct impacts of the pandemic.

scholarly journals Suicide prevention in low- and middle-income countries: part perceptions, partial solutions

2017 ◽  
Vol 211 (5) ◽  
pp. 264-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

SummarySuicide, a common cause of death in many low- and middle-income countries, has often been viewed through a medical/psychiatric lens. Such perspectives medicalise social and personal distress and suggest individual and medication-based treatments. This editorial argues for the need to examine suicide from a public health perspective and suggests the need for population-based social and economic interventions.

scholarly journals Community-Level Experiences, Understandings, and Responses to COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Qualitative and Ethnographic Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 12063
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Raymond ◽  
Paul R. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Methodological Rigor ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Low And Middle Income

(1) Background: COVID-19 disruptions offer researchers insight into how pandemics are at once biological and social threats, as communities struggle to construct meaning from novel challenges to their ontological status quo. Multiple epistemes, in which public health imperatives confront and negotiate locally derived knowledge and traditions, vie for legitimacy and agency, resulting in new cultural forms. (2) Methods: To investigate the context and construction of community responses, a systematic review of qualitative literature was conducted with the aim of evaluating those insights provided by empirical, social field research in low- and middle-income countries since the onset of COVID-19. Six scholarly databases were searched for empirical, qualitative, field-based, or participatory research that was published in peer-reviewed journals between December 2019 and August 2021. (3) Results: Twenty-five studies were selected for data extraction, following critical appraisal for methodological rigor by two independent reviewers, and were then analyzed thematically. Faced with unprecedented social ruptures, restrictions in social and physical mobility, and ever-looming uncertainties of infection, financial insecurity, stigma, and loss, communities worldwide reacted in multiple and complex ways. Pervasive misinformation and fear of social rejection resulted in noncompliance with pandemic sanctions, resistance, and increased isolation, allowing the spread of the disease. The meaning of, and understandings about, COVID-19 were constructed using traditional, religious, and biomedical epistemologies, which were occasionally in conflict with each other. Innovations and adaptations, through syntheses of traditional and biomedical discourses and practice, illustrated community resilience and provided models for successful engagement to improve public health outcomes. (4) Conclusion: Local context and community engagement were indispensable considerations when enacting effective public health interventions to meet the challenges of the pandemic.

A decentralized Offline Patient ID Generation and Matching Algorithm: The Nigeria phone-based model (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emeka Chukwu ◽  
Lalit Garg ◽  
Iniobong Ekong
Keyword(s):  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Health Service Delivery ◽  
Health Management Information System ◽  
Patient Identification ◽  
Network Resource ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Low And Middle Income

UNSTRUCTURED Quality of health service delivery data remains sub-optimal in many developing countries despite over a decade of progress in digitization and Health Management Information System (HMIS). Uniquely identifying Patients within the care continuum is the only way to guarantee better outcomes hinged on shared health records. Many different strategies exist for uniquely identifying and tracking a patient in a health system, and they also have their trade-offs. Nigeria, a typical low-and-middle-income country is used to demonstrate the survey of how leading candidates for Patient identification fit in the digital Patient ID desirable attributes framework. The network resource constraints inherent in low-and-middle-income countries is illustrated. We show that no current Patient ID strategy simultaneously meets the six attributes of uniqueness, unchanging, uncontroversial, inexpensive, ubiquitous, and uncomplicated. We designed and prototyped decentralized algorithms for universal-offline, unique Patient ID generation with a dual deterministic and probabilistic patient matching model.

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