Development of a Web-based Data Entry System for Disease Surveillance: in Ghana

Disease surveillance is an ongoing process involving the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health data. This requires the collection and analysis of varied and relatively large amounts of data, from and about the locations where diseases and related health problems occur and from where patients present themselves, typically in urban and rural health centres and hospitals. The quality of data and its transformation into information are basic to the efficiency and effectiveness of all information systems. The web-based data entry system for disease surveillance is a reporting tool to be used by all disease surveillance centres (health facilities) in reporting cases to sub-district, district, regional and national levels. It is a web technology which shall send the data to a central database server. The application will provide web-based data screens for data entry. With a web-based data entry system, data can be entered anywhere in the country and this will be sent to the remote database server at the National Disease Surveillance Department. The system will provide web screens for the entry, management and querying of core demographic and diseases.