Case Study: Medical Research Council
The Medical Research Council of South Africa has as its mandate to promote and conduct research for the improvement of health and quality of life of the public.
The Mobile Researcher mobile application channel was selected by the MRC to fulfill its data collection needs for a large-scale baseline study conducted in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Research Objectives
The intention of the study was to collect baseline data on a large number of households within the Umlazi area.
The study included questions pertaining to the structure of dwellings and access to basic services.
Statistics on female inhabitants and infant mortality were also captured as part of the baseline study to provide comparative points for future intervention projects.
Logistics
A team of approximately 25 field workers was assembled to conduct interviews with Umlazi residents on an ongoing basis.
Each field worker was issued with a low cost Nokia 2626 handset and two brief training sessions on the use of the mobile application were held.
Key Successes
- Low cost Nokia 2626 handsets were successfully used by field workers to conduct surveys. Several field workers had never even sent an SMS before.
- On average, over 400 households were surveyed every day with data available for analysis and reporting before the field workers returned to the field the following day.
- Research staff and management were able to isolate and rectify issues whilst the study was in progress.
- Field worker productivity and quality was monitored on a daily basis for training and remuneration purposes.
- More than 25,000 households were surveyed in under 3 months.
- In total over 65,000 surveys were conducted.
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