Use of a mobile application for Ebola contact tracing and monitoring in northern Sierra Leone: a proof-of-concept study

Table 4 Duration of each step from case registration to first visit of each contact, using the ECT app

Step	N	Median	Min	25%	75%	Max
Time from case registration to contact assignment	556	25.6 h	0.1	0.5	30.6	147.2
Time from contact registration to contact assignment	524^a	4.33 h	0.2	1.4	47.5	292.5
Time from contact assignment to first recorded visit	384^b	24.9 h	0.4	18.1	122.7	304.3^c
Total time from start of case registration to first recorded visit	384	73.2 h	4.6	26.2	216.8	384.9

Footnotes:
^a For 32 contacts, there was no record of assignment
^b For 140 contacts, there was no record of a visit at home
^c The 127 contacts with a duration of over 100 h were contacts of 4 cases. For one case, the long duration was due to syncing and network problems experienced by the CT. The SIM card had to be changed to a different network. For another, the CTC was not able to assign the contacts correctly as they found it difficult to assign the unusually large number of contacts and required assistance from the field team on the process. This led to contacts having to be reassigned. Specific field team training on monitoring assigned contacts in the CommCare HQ was not provided until July – after the major assignment problems had occurred

ISSN: 1471-2334