# Advancing Bioethics of One Health Data Capture at the Point of Zoonotic Spillover in the Congo Basin Forest Perimeter

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $150,055

## Abstract

Project Summary
Averting future global pandemics requires surveillance programs that can quickly and accurately
identify potential new outbreaks worldwide. Mobile health technologies (mHealth) are a promising
strategy for collecting data on infectious diseases in remote, underserved settings at the nexus of
human and wildlife interactions and zoonotic disease spillover. As the use of mHealth
technologies has grown in high income countries, they have also been increasingly investigated
in low- and middle-income countries, including Uganda. While potentially promising, these
interventions are not one size fits all but instead dependent on a complex interplay between the
technology itself and local ethical, cultural, and other norms. Core mHealth technologies such as
mobile data collection, cloud storage, and geolocation may be entirely novel for some populations.
Differences in understanding of these newly introduced mHealth technologies may pose
significant ethical concerns around respect, consent, confidentiality, and beneficence, especially
in cultures within Sub Saharan Africa that value a more collectivist social identity. This project will
expand research conducted by the parent award which is developing a community-based human
and wildlife disease surveillance and outbreak detection system in Southwestern Uganda to
investigate bioethical considerations associated with implementation of this platform. Importantly,
we will identify key differences in understanding of mHealth concepts between a predominantly
oral tradition society as well as a society that places different value on communal vs. individual
benefits compared with western societies. Using focus groups, including pertinent subgroups (i.e.,
community members and leaders, local alternative medicine leaders, park rangers, and poachers)
and key representatives from various linguistic, ethnic, and other stakeholder groups, we will
develop a locally relevant research ethics framework, including the fundamental concepts of
respect, consent, confidentiality, and beneficence. Our study team will then develop novel or
select existing, culturally relevant engagement procedures (i.e. familial, community, multimedia,
and/or step-wise procedures) which, along with results from the focus groups, will undergo
member checking to evaluate accuracy and acceptability. Through a series of bioethics
workshops incorporating local western-trained and alternative medicine leaders along with
international bioethicists, we will review key outcomes learned through focus group discussions
and design a guiding framework for ethically informed implementation of mHealth systems in the
Ugandan context. Combined, these products will help local and international partners achieve
ethical, sustained, and effective mHealth surveillance systems in similar settings.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11064683
- **Project number:** 3R21TW012608-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Tierra Smiley Evans
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $150,055
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-08-17 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11064683

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11064683, Advancing Bioethics of One Health Data Capture at the Point of Zoonotic Spillover in the Congo Basin Forest Perimeter (3R21TW012608-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11064683. Licensed CC0.

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