Improving epidemiologic surveillance and health promoter training in rural Latin America through information and communication technologies.

This paper presents two technological developments oriented to increase the efficiency of the epidemiologic surveillance system and to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities of the rural establishments with only e-mail connectivity through wireless systems. The Telematics Department of the University of Cauca has developed a computerized epidemiologic surveillance system for the collecting, sending, processing, visualization, and feedback of epidemiologic information at national level. The use of the system in a pilot area has solved the problems of subregister, increasing the volume of data colection in 15%. The complete epidemiologic system is currently being implemented in 22 health care establishments in the Department of Cauca in Colombia. Likewise, the Technical University and Carlos III University of Madrid have developed a distance training system with a high-usability interface both for students and teachers. The system includes authoring, distribution, tracking, and visualization of courses synchronized through electronic mail messages in a clear way for the user. Both systems use a creative combination of e-mail and XML (eXtensible Markup Language)-based technologies, ready to be used through slow, intermittent, and asynchronous communication systems.