REAL-TIME DIGITAL DASHBOARDS FOR TRACKING NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASE TRENDS IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Abstract

The major health issue in developing economies is the non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which is the leading cause of morbidity and early mortality, and the lack of unified health information systems hinders timely decisions.  This paper presents the design and evaluation of a real-time digital dashboard that is expected to integrate and provide the trends of non-communicable diseases using different health datasets.  Dashboarding employs automated data mining, cleaning pipelines, hotspots mapping based on GIS, and predictive analytics to assist in identifying on the rise early diseases.  The findings indicate that the completeness of data, speed of reporting, and usability by the stakeholders have all increased significantly. It is also seen in the forecasting models that they are highly effective in predicting of trends in diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer.  Pilot testing revealed that 40-55 percent of reporting time was reduced and decision -makers in the district level were more engaged.  The multilingual interface of the system was mobile-friendly and facilitated the use of the system by frontline health professionals, and the role-based restrictions enhanced the security of the data.  The findings indicate that real-time dashboard can significantly advance NCD surveillance, aid in the allocation of resources, and assist in evidence-based decision-making.  The paper concludes that one potential, scalable, and inexpensive means of modernizing health information systems in under-resource places is the use of digital dashboards.