# Reducing the Burden of Road Traffic- Associated Mortality using Mobile Technology

> **NIH NIH R21** · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $204,603

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Injury remains a major unaddressed global public health problem. Five million people die from traumatic
events each year, outnumbering those dying from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Furthermore,
90 percent of injury-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), because they
often lack the infrastructure and personnel for effective injury prevention and control. Road traffic
injuries (RTIs) are the most common type of injury, now claiming 1.24 million lives each year. Nigeria
has the highest burden of RTIs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Lagos State has the highest population
density in the region. Therefore, any interventions that can reduce the burden of RTIs in Nigeria will have
significant impact of the burden of injury in SSA.
Our overall goal is to reduce RTI-associated morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa by leveraging
existing, low-cost mobile technology. This new process will make RTI data collection and analysis,
inexpensive and seamless, and in the process, improve the effectiveness of first-responders to RTI
victims. Our objectives in this proposal are to improve the accuracy of RTI location reporting using
existing location-aware mobile technologies, and to reduce prehospital transport times for RTI victims in
Lagos State, Nigeria by developing dynamic spatiotemporal, interactive RTI maps for ambulance teams.
In order to accomplish this objective, we propose the following Specific Aims; (i) Develop a tool to
improve RTI reporting accuracy in Lagos State, by integrating Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
(USSD) communication protocols with ‘data scraping’ algorithms, and (ii) Develop a dynamic, hotspot-
based facility allocation and ambulance dispatch strategy in Lagos State using the mobile RTI
notification system
We will use USSD protocols already available on all mobile phones, to identify the location of
RTIs based on input by bystanders. Computer servers on the mobile network will process the data, initiate
a search on social media, and provide accurate information to ambulance teams to assist them in rapidly
finding the location and victims of the RTI, and promptly transferring them to the most appropriate,
closest health facility.
Upon completion of this study, we will have new, low-cost mobile tool that provides simple, accurate and
reliable methods to improve the timeliness and accuracy of RTI reporting, shorten ambulance response
times, and enhance triage decisions by first responders. We believe that this technology will represent a
paradigm shift in data collection for a variety of diseases in low-resource settings.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9985225
- **Project number:** 5R21TW010991-02
- **Recipient organization:** UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Dohyeong Kim
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $204,603
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9985225

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9985225, Reducing the Burden of Road Traffic- Associated Mortality using Mobile Technology (5R21TW010991-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9985225. Licensed CC0.

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