CHAMP (Community Health Assessment & Mapping Project)

In partnership with Humanity for Children, the Center for Health Analytics for National and Global Equity (C.H.A.N.G.E.) is developing a geospatial database and mobile interface for community health assessment in the in the Maasai lands of Tanzania, near Mount Kilimanjaro.

Gathering and Analyzing Health Information

Our dedicated local partners are doing good old-fashioned fieldwork, going from one “boma” or homestead to the next in this far-flung community, to gather data on population demographics, local health needs, and access to medical care. Tying data provided by each “boma” to geospatial coordinates, analysts at C.H.A.N.G.E. are able to index patterns in community health needs and health outcomes to satellite images, which will allow for analysis and prediction of environmental determinants of health.

Using Information to Assess Needs and Guide Interventions

By identifying patterns of illness, disease, and injury, this project will target high-risk locations and communities with education and services, such as screening and preventive care for parasites, malaria, and tuberculosis. Identifying cultural drivers of health practices will guide education & promotion of healthy behaviors by locally-educated and locally-hired community health workers. And providing information for community leaders at no cost will support local efforts in public health and education.

Identifying Useable Roads and Remote Homesteads

An early focus for CHAMP will be to create usable roadmaps from village clinics to remote “bomas,” so that mobile clinic vehicles can reach laboring mothers and other urgent patients in real time. Western-based mapping systems may not contain on-the-ground information about how vehicles in this region move from village to boma, or which unpaved trails have been rendered impassable by rainy-season floods. Collecting local human information into a mobile platform will allow mobile clinics to reach their patients in the shortest time, and will continuously update the platform on roads, health needs, and healthcare access.