In Sri Lanka, a major drawback in injury prevention is the lack of complete, accurate and timely data. To fulfill this data need, in 2006, Sri Lanka's Trauma Secretariat piloted an Injury Surveillance System (ISS) in four hospitals. This comprised of two parts: a paper-based data collection tool (Trauma Surveillance Record or TSR) and its corresponding software application. TSR recorded ICD-10 Chapter XIX codes related to the diagnoses of injuries, but did not record the Chapter XX codes pertaining to external causes of morbidity which provide essential knowledge for injury prevention. The software application was built using proprietary technologies that could lead to increased costs and associated dependencies with vendors. The system was unable to comply with the changing data needs of the Ministry of Health (MoH) without a major retooling. Consequently, in 2011, the MoH made changes in the TSR, but the software application was unable to handle those changes. The ISS was evaluated by three independent teams which recommended discontinuing its use and suggested the development of a new system.
Objective
Designing, developing and piloting a web-based Injury Surveillance System for Sri Lanka.