DataDyne's Episurveyor makes high quality data collection open source, free and accessible to public health professionals around the world.  A health team interested in using the data collection tool on their computers and basic mobile phones can log on to the site, create a customized form and within an hour begin using the system.   Episurveyor can be used for postpartum and antenatal care visits and is being used in Guatemala to combat high maternal mortality and in a holistic maternal health project in Uganda.

This description is from DataDyne's own site:  "Guatemala's TulaSalud is working to fight against a very high maternal death rate in Guatemala's rural areas, and now they have a new tool to help them in that battle: EpiSurveyor. They've provided us with two terrific links to show what they're doing: the first is in Spanish only, and details the use of EpiSurveyor. The second is in English and talks about TulaSalud's programs in general. This is just another confirmation to us of the benefit of the web application model: TulaSalud heard about EpiSurveyor, and then were able to just go to www.episurveyor.org and start using it. We didn't have to train them or even talk to them, they didn't have to pay us or sign an agreement or contract. All those barriers to the use of technology, which weigh most heavily against small organizations, have been wiped away."

A terrific description of DataDyne's Episurveyor is found here:

"The EpiSurveyor project brings high quality data collection within reach of developing country public health by creating free, open-source software that focuses on affordable, supportable off-the-shelf hardware including PDAs and cell phones, addresses the need for data by making it easier to collect, analyze, and share, and most importantly moves the center-of-development to the developing countries themselves to extend the benefits of modern ICT to places it has never been used, and to health programs that could never afford it before. "

 DataDyne won the Wall Street Journal's Healthcare IT award in the fall of 2009.  The article describes DataDyne this way:

In developing countries, gathering and analyzing time-sensitive health-care information can be a challenge. Rural health clinics typically compile data only in paper records, making it difficult to spot and to respond quickly to emerging trends.

With EpiSurveyor, developed with support from the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, health officials can create health-survey forms that can be downloaded to commonly used mobile phones. Health workers carrying the phones can then collect information—about immunization rates, vaccine supplies or possible disease outbreaks—when they visit local clinics. The information can then be quickly analyzed to determine, say, whether medical supplies need to be restocked or to track the spread of a disease.

photo: A representative of the Kenyan Ministry of Health administers an exit interview using the EpiSurveyor Mobile application.