Ebola outbreak and response (2026)

[ball (Ellen Ball)]

The current ebola outbreak is greatly concerning.

For anyone thinking about EMR for ebola for clinical care, there was a version written specifically for the many physical challenges of data use/collection/reporting in dangerous environments. There were also CommCare apps for contact tracing. I suggest that you won’t try to re-invent the wheel or go it alone. If this software is needed now, you are not alone.

Here are resources:

• 2018 Update on Ebola Response
• Ebola Case Study
• OpenMRS Ebola Case Study
• Development and Deployment of the OpenMRS-Ebola Electronic Health Record System for an Ebola Treatment Center in Sierra Leone
• Github ebola module

FYI @akanter @jteich @hamish @michaelbontyes

[akanter (Andrew Kanter)]

Thanks, Ellen! We have added new concepts for the latest outbreak so there may need to be some updates to the existing resources to take advantage of new diagnosis and lab codes, for example…

[tendomart (tendo kiiza Martyn)]

Thanks @ball

[jteich (Jonathan Teich)]

Thanks, @ball . We developed a tablet-based rounding system that was to be used in the contaminated, heavily isolated ‘red zone’ of some of the hastily built Ebola treatment centers in Sierra Leone, allowing the staff seeing the patients to view and document records while wearing double gowns and double gloves, and providing a way to communicate that info to the main EHR. It allowed patient assessment, collection of vitals and input/output and the like, and ordering of medications and IVs.

The groups that had built Ebola-specific information tools – OpenMRS, CommCare, Google, one or two others – met with the IRC after the crisis had peaked, hoping to get support to make this system more robust so that it could handle the inevitable next epidemics; that support did not appear.

However, I have design notes and other materials, and would be happy to participate if a similar system is contemplated.