Strengthening tuberculosis care through digitalization: National scale-up of Uganda’s electronic tuberculosis tracker [Conference Abstract]
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Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract NACNDC/19JASH00071 (Oral) | Published: 12 Dec 2025
Strengthening tuberculosis care through digitalization: National scale-up of Uganda’s electronic tuberculosis tracker
Mabel Nakawooya1,2,&, Ebony Quinto1, Geoffrey Amanya1, Mulindwa Alex1, Seyoum Dejene1, Raymond Byaruhanga1, Henry Luzze1
1Ministry of Health Kampala, Uganda, 2National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program, Kampala, Uganda
&Corresponding author: Mabel Nakawooya, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program, Kampala, Uganda, Email: mabelprecious451@gmail.com
Received: 18 Sep 2025, Accepted: 20 Oct 2025, Published: 12 Dec 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: tracker , rollout, systems, paper-based, tuberculosis, National, Uganda
©Mabel Nakawooya et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Mabel Nakawooya et al. Strengthening tuberculosis care through digitalization: National scale-up of Uganda’s electronic tuberculosis tracker. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc6):00071. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO6-00071
Introduction
In Uganda, reliance on aggregate reporting of TB data has historically limited visibility of patient-level information crucial for effective treatment and program management. To address gap and to further strengthen data management and surveillance of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistance TB cases, the Ministry of Health together with the National TB and Leprosy Program developed and rolled out a DHIS2 based TB tracker which promises enhanced monitoring and decision-making capabilities.
Methods
Between 2021 to 2025, the TB Tracker was rolled out to 1,559 health facilities. The rollout included structured training, on-site troubleshooting, mentoring and support supervision across regions. Adoption increased from 35% (597/1,700 facilites) in 2021 to 72% (1559/2,163) in 2025. The unit cost was $2,109 per facility with hardware and training as the main costs. Clustering trainings and integration with existing HIV platforms substantially reduced expenses.
Results
As a result of this intervention 88% (325,036/365,211) of all the TB cases and 100% MDR-TB cases notified in DHIS2 were captured in the TB Tracker. Data entry, timeliness and usage improved significantly at regional and district levels. Involvement of district leadership, mentorship, virtual webinars, peer to peer support and focused support supervision drove improvements. The system enabled hotspot mapping which informed the CAST TB campaign and enhanced targeted TB case finding while reducing costs. Ongoing integration with DHIS2 aggregate reporting is expected to further improve data quality, timeliness, completeness and reduce workload at facility level.
Conclusion
National implementation of the TB Tracker in Uganda demonstrates that transitioning from paper-based to electronic patient-level TB data is feasible and cost-manageable and programmatically impactful. Key lessons include integration and leverage of HIV program to reduce costs, engaging district leadership to sustain adoption and using patient-level data hotspot mapping. Uganda’s experience provides scalable model for other high burden countries
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Keywords
- Tracker
- Rollout
- Systems
- Paper-based
- Tuberculosis
- National
- Uganda