About 55 million people die each year . Of those deaths , 35 million wo n’t have a cause of death recorded , according to the University of Melbourne . A group of scientist desire to change that with a unexampled app that will allow non - doctors to enter mortality datum .
Cause - of - death statistic and other mortality data are vitally important for governments and experts developing public wellness programs . “ Without precise cause of death information , we ca n’t supervise disease and injury trends , we ca n’t keep running of emerging health problem and we do n’t have any marker to show us whether computer program and policies are actually function , " Centennial State - Godhead of the app Alan Lopez saidin a pressure sack .
“ So if you live in a nation where no - one is dying from malaria , then why are you pouring money into malaria - bar programme ? And conversely , if people are dying from lung cancer , why are n’t you induct in tobacco dominance ? ”
Unfortunately , the countries most in pauperization of aggressive public health programs are often the same ones lacking proficient fatality rate data . doctor are stretched lean in poor countries , and the deceased may be the least of their concerns .
So why not take that responsibility off their hands ? The new cause of death app lie of a simple , 25 - minute symptom questionnaire that can be completed without medical training . Village officials , nurse , and family members of the deceased can fill up out the study and upload their effect . An algorithmic rule will regulate the movement of expiry and publish a death certificate while capturing pertinent mortality data point . The app can also store questionnaire responses until an Internet connection becomes useable , which is an important characteristic in remote villages .
“ I just number from Myanmar where every calendar month , rural midwives send spell of paper on case of dying through the mail,”Lopez toldNew Scientist . “ Now , the estimation is that they ’ll institutionalize that selective information through pad instead . ”
The app is the Cartesian product of 10 year ’ work by Lopez and his colleagues around the man . The first stair was to collect existing mortality datum from infirmary in India , the Philippines , Mexico , and Tanzania . They compiled selective information from 12,500 cases with known causes of death and identified the 34 most vernacular causes of destruction for adults and the 21 most vulgar for kid . The researcher question around 100 families for each cause of death to check how family members would trace the deceased ’s symptom . work backward , the scientists created a questionnaire and algorithm that would yield a cause of death . They then build that algorithm into an app and took it to China , Papua New Guinea , the Philippines , and Bangladesh for field - examination . The app proved to be remarkably accurate — even more so than doctors reviewing the same casing .
Lopez and his workfellow hope to wave out the app in 20 countries by next twelvemonth . They are promising that their questionnaire can help community and regime enact substantial modification .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
