The Mycetoma Research Center, University of Khartoum
WHO Collaborating Center on Mycetoma
The Medical Information Unit
The main function of the Medical Information Unit (MIU), Mycetoma Research Center (MRC) is to collect, manage, report and archive the patients’ demographic characteristics, their various investigations results, and photographs. These data and information are collected regularly during the patients’ visits to the Mycetoma clinic at the MRC, medical and health missions to the peripheral mycetoma units at Sennar, White Nile and Gazeria States and during the mycetoma surveillance and field surveys.
MIU has trustworthy and reliable data management and reporting system. This has two components; hard copy one where patients files and investigations results that include histopathology, cytology, X-ray, MRI, ultrasound, and CT scans. All patients have lesions photographed before, during and after treatment and follow-up visits.
The patient's file includes the demographic characteristics, laboratory tests and imaging results, treatment, operative findings, and follow-up visits every six weeks to cure. The MIU has records of almost 10,000 patients from 1991 to now.
Patient file
Patients’ files and investigations results
The Medical Information Unit
Patients’ photos
The second component is the electronic one, where the patients' information is available in a SPSS system for data analysis and at a cloud-based online system called Secu Trial based in Germany
https://asp.interactive-systems.de/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ST74-setup-DataCapture.woa/wa/choose?customer=MERUK
Loading the patients’ information into
The mycetoma Epidemiological Registry, Secu Trial
Loading all the patients' records in the system was a tedious and hard activity done by a group of young, recently graduated medical doctors. The data are updated on a weekly basis. Their experience with the system is recorded in this video.
During the field surveys for mycetoma surveillance, early case detection and management, data are collected by a digital application called CAPI, which stands for Computer Assisted Patients Identifier. It was designed by a programmer at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, University of Khartoum and upgraded by the MRC IT team. The application can be downloaded on personal mobile phones, laptops, and tabs. Various data, including the suspected patient's demographic characteristics, socioeconomic and household information, and photos of the suspected lesions and the village environment, can be captured. The GSP can capture the village and the suspected patients' geographical coordinates. The collected data can be transferred immediately to a server at the MRC when the internet is available in the field or stored in the system to be transferred later when the internet is available. Data can be analysed statically, and geographical maps can be produced.
Field survey data collected by the CAPI
CAPI generated photo and map