We are excited to deploy the IMPACT 3.0 mobile application in collaboration with the Gorilla Doctors of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. The IMPACT 3.0 mobile application supports trackers and veterinarians as they perform syndromic health surveillance of endangered gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In the field, MGVP trackers will access the application on Android tablets, collecting a range of health data as the gorillas move around in groups. This information includes observations about the gorillas’ physical activity, respiratory performance, and body, skin, and stool condition.
“The app is a game changer,” says Dr. Mike Cranfield, former director of the Gorilla Doctors. “We will be able to receive health issues real-time.”
Since field data is collected in remote areas, a key challenge for the project team was building a mobile application that could work without internet access. To address this issue, IMPACT works offline to store field data, then once back online, will send automated messages to the vet teams when abnormalities are observed in any of the gorillas.
The mobile application syncs data to the mdlogix clinical research management platform (CRMS) so that health information can be aggregated, geo-referenced, visualized, and displayed in data dashboards. These dynamic dashboards give key stakeholders the ability to evaluate and monitor the prevalence of health problems, intervening when necessary.
Dr. Benard Jasper Ssebide, head veterinarian of the Gorilla Doctors in Uganda, is pleased with the collaboration between mdlogix and his team.
“mdlogix has worked closely with us to develop this app and platform that will greatly help us to collect good data and monitor the health of our gorillas,” he states. “It has been a pleasure working with them.”
Learn more about the Gorilla Doctors and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project.