The MOASIS team has led yet another innovative initiative, namely uData Capture Device, a low cost micro-data capture device. It has been designed and developed specifically for data capturing in remote health facilities in Mozambique.
The device is a DIN A4 touch pad loaded with a suitable firmware in which data is entered by simply mounting the paper form over the uDCD touch pad and pressing (by hand or any pen or stylus) the appropriate areas on the paper. The membrane keyboard resistant to dust and moisture under the foil collects health data and displays it in the small screen. The display in the small screen shows only the data being selected in 5 lines with graphic color scrolling. The data is confirmed and saved in the SD memory card in a flexible XML format readable by the ministerial statistical systems and ready for further processing, analysis and aggregation.
Various paper forms can be used to launch specific programs aimed at gathering different types of data (e.g. level data collection of patient, physician, surgery, maternal and child programs, etc.). Among various advantage of this solution the most important are the very low cost and power consumption, the possibility of local production and management of any technical component and the fact that this device is fully dedicated to one function (the Health Information System data management) avoiding misuse or other use that promote thieving of the device (as per Tablet, smartphone, netbook or notebooks, etc.)