Maria Emília Midori Hirami is an engineering student at USP
(University of São Paulo – Brazil) and she’s working on a project of
epidemiological studies headed by professors from POLI and FMUSP
(USP’s engineering and medicine schools respectively). The project
uses Open Data Kit as one of its key tools.
She writes, "On [our] last project, Prof. Dr. P. R. Menezes and his
team at FMUSP completed over 2000 surveys in São Paulo and Amazonas
using PalmTops with the app EpiSurveyor. On account of some
difficulties with both device and software, me and some other
students, coordinated by Prof. Dr. A. C. Seabra at POLI, have been
working to find the most appropriate tool for them and this is where
ODK enters. Last week, we finished the construction of a
[questionnaire] that helps depression diagnosis and has over 200
questions. The interviewers will test it with ODK Collect on the
coming weeks and we’re waiting anxiously for the results. We also have
another form of a [pregnancy] study ready to use. Our goal is to
further increase the number of participants to reach a significant
portion of the population that depends on the Brazilian public health
system. Our group would like to thank you for all your efforts!"