Table 1.

Summary of the electronic data capture software and hardware being used in Mchinji district, Malawi

	Software	Hardware	# of users	Project summary (duration)
Pendragon	Commercial, general purpose form design and administration system for Palm and Windows OS	PDA	12	Cross-sectional survey evaluating the impact of a health education radio programme (3 months)
CommCare	Open-source, but commercially supported, system with web-based form design, data management and reporting systems for Android	Android smartphone	44	Prospective cohort investigating pregnancy intention and maternal and neonatal health (18 months) Prospective cohort investigating risks of treatment failure in community-treated pneumonia (9 months)
ODK Collect	Open-source form design, mobile data collection and management system for Android	Android smartphone	8	Verbal autopsy interviews as part of a larger prospective cohort study to evaluate the impact of vaccine introduction on post-neonatal infant mortality (36 months – still on-going)
MIVA	Purpose-built, stand-alone application for Android, to collect and process verbal autopsy data	Android smartphone	8

OS: Operating System; PDA: personal digital assistant; ODK: Open Data Kit; MIVA: Mobile InterVA (www.interva.net).