Developing a Novel Mobile Health (mHealth) Tool to Improve Dehydration Assessment and Management in Patients with Acute Diarrhea in Resource-Limited Settings.

Dehydration due to diarrhea is one of the main causes of death worldwide, yet no clinical tools for accurately assessing and managing dehydration in patients with acute diarrhea have been created for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2012, Brown University's Department of Emergency Medicine began partnering with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease, Bangladesh in order to address some of these gaps. Out of this partnership, the DHAKA Score, a clinical diagnostic model for assessing dehydration in children under five years of age with acute diarrhea, was developed. Building upon the success of the DHAKA Study, researchers at both institutions have launched the NIRUDAK Study earlier this year to develop and validate similar age-specific clinical diagnostic models yet shifting the patient population to those over five. Improving diagnostic approaches and fluid management may reduce unnecessary utilization of already limited healthcare resources as well as the morbidity and mortality that occurs due to misdiagnosis.