HTrack: A new tool to facilitate public health field visits and electronic data capture

Abstract

Many applications have been developed for electronic data collection. However, offline field navigation tools incorporating secure electronic data capture and field visit tracking are currently scarce. We created an R-Shiny application, HTrack (Household Tracking), for use on encrypted Android devices in the field. The application was implemented in the Communities Organized to Prevent Arboviruses (COPA) project, a study beginning in 2018 to better understand arboviral disease incidence in 38 communities in Puerto Rico. The application was used to navigate to randomly selected structures and capture visit outcomes after conducting multiple visits for participant recruitment. It also served as a bridge to an alternate software, Epi Info, to collect participant-level questionnaire data. This application successfully captured each visit outcome and improved the logistics of field level activities for the COPA project, eliminating the use of paper maps for navigation. We show the development of HTrack and comment on the limitations and strengths of this application and further improvements.

Fig 1. HTrack main tab serves as the general area for site navigation and data entry.

This tab incorporates a live map (not shown) with zoom capabilities and a location/navigation toggle (current location appears as a red dot, not shown). The box to the right is the data entry component and is activated by pressing a house marker on the map. The data table below is populated upon data entry and saving. Coordinates are removed from the image to protect participant privacy.

Fig 2. Representation of HTrack’s main map and navigation area.

This map recreates how HTrack’s main map is seen upon usage. Street names have been removed to protect participant privacy.

Fig 3. HTrack color-scheme.

Blue markers were used for structures that needed an initial visit. Orange markers were used for structures that required unscheduled follow-up visits (a black outline indicated that the structure had already been visited for the day, but still required a follow-up visit). Among scheduled visits, black markers were used for visits scheduled on a Saturday. Grey markers were used for visits scheduled on a weekday. Pink was used for homes that had a visit scheduled for that specific day. Green was used for homes that required no more visits, regardless of recruitment status.

Fig 4. HTrack edit tab serves as the area to perform any changes to the data already entered.

This tab allows the user to edit several rows of data after saving. The initial visit row cannot be edited or deleted (visit 0). Coordinates are removed from the image to protect participant privacy.

Fig 5. HTrack statistics tab serves as the data visualization area to monitor daily field progress.

This area shows the current progress by cluster or overall. Graphs and tables can be downloaded as needed.

Fig 6. COPA communities.

COPA communities, including all 38 clusters, are shown in light blue. Communities with asterisks indicate communities with apartment buildings.