What is GATHERdata™?

An enterprise level structured data collection, analyzing, alerting and reporting system designed to use mobile tools to improve flexibility. Download brochure.

GATHERdata includes tools for
- form development
- form deployment to mobile devices
- data collection on mobile devices
- reporting data from mobile devices to central database
- sorting of data for outliers, anomalies or triggers
- alerting to pre-configured clients based on individualized thresholds
- data analysis
- reporting
- transmission of data to legacy database(s) or data warehouse

What do you use it for?

Mobile workers, field staff or remote centers use GATHERdata to collect information and to send that information to a central site.

For example:
Staff conducting door to door surveys use forms sent by GATHERdata to their handsets (mobile phones or PDAs) to conduct interviews. Once completed the data form the interview is sent to the research center's main computer via the cellular, wifi or other network. Data is immediately loaded into the appropriate database. Supervisors are alerted on completion rates and the work product of any individual surveyor.

In a remote district, the education planning office assigns new teachers to schools based on out-dated information on the number and distribution of existing teachers by subject. When the assignment of new teachers does not match the actual need, schools use paper-based forms to report teacher shortages and it takes months for the district office to receive, compile, and analyze the data to reassign teachers to where they are needed. By the time a school receives the physics teacher they requested, students have missed half of the year's material and will be ill-prepared for the national exam. Using GATHERdata, principals input their school's personnel data into mobile phones and the information is collected and compiled seamlessly giving education planners an immediate snap-shot of the personnel gaps and overlaps in their district. The district level data is also compiled and sent to provincial education planners. Severe teacher shortages are automatically reported to national officials in charge of teacher training.

A rural health clinic reports the cases of new reportable infectious diseases seen each week. Those reports are filed on paper forms that must be delivered and aggregated from the village level to the district and then on to the national health ministry where the data is entered into a central database. By the time the data is analyzed it is several weeks old and outbreaks are potentially expanding. A health center using GATHERdata sends its data daily to the district health office and the ministry. The ministry receives all the data from all the reporting health centers into one central database and is able to instantly "sniff" the incoming data for anomalies either in the number of cases or types of illnesses report and to immediately notify public health officials saving time, and maybe lives.

Doesn't everyone have access to the Internet? Why do we need this?

No, not everyone has access to the internet everywhere they work. Mobile workers are far more likely to have access to cellular networks. In poor and developing areas, there may be no access to the internet in schools or health clinics. Half of the world's population now has access to cell phones and cell phones are being used for more and more sophisticated applications.

Using mobile applications means that you no longer need to wait to get back to the clinic or travel long distances to an area with a computer to get your files updated and your data reported. And studies have shown that electronic data collection and reporting reduces errors, improves the completeness and that accuracy of the data collected and reduces the time from data collection to reporting and action.

I've heard of other projects for data collection on cell phones. How is GATHERdata different?

There are a number of options for data collection on mobile phones and PDAs and these might meet your needs.. GATHERdata is currently the only enterprise level platform - providing all the tools required to gather and understand your data and to act on it in real time. An open-source development, GATHERdata is intended to reduce the cost barriers that make this kind of technology out of the reach of small organizations and developing country institutions.

As the community of users grows, so too will the number of "applications" (forms and reports) developed by projects that can be shared, avoiding the need to "re-invent the wheel" and helping organizations save time and money.

Download brochure on organizational readiness to use GATHERdata.

How do I find out more about GATHERdata?

Please send an email message to: gather@healthnet.org