ToR for First Evaluation of AI assisted smart phone microscopy for automatic detection of parasites

• Post by: Naamii
• November 8, 2022
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Background of the Project

Diarrhea is the second leading cause of deaths for children under five years old (WHO factsheet). Diarrhea can be caused by different kinds of bacteria, viruses or parasitic organisms that are usually spread through contaminated food or drinking water due to poor sanitation and hygiene. The Majority of deaths due to diarrhea occur in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) where there is a lack of infrastructure and awareness needed for proper sanitation and hygiene behavior (Burden et al 2020, Fagbamigbe et al 2021). Even within LMICs, people living in poverty, with higher prevalence of malnourished children, are affected more as diarrhea morbidity can lead to higher rate of mortality among malnourished children (Ahs et al 2020). In addition to the rural areas of LMICs, slum areas in urban centers, refugee camps and migrant neighborhoods in some of the high-income countries could also be affected as these areas have the possibility of having lower quality of water supply, health and sanitation awareness. Regular surveillance of diarrhea-causing pathogens in water and food supply to the community can help identify contaminated sources and take preventive actions early. Similarly, the ability to rapidly test children for pathogens infections can help provide timely treatment. However, regular surveillance and screening are often challenging for resource-constrained regions due to the expensive test cost and unavailability of experts. The difficulty in testing is exacerbated due to the need for different types of tests to cover a wide variety of pathogens causing diarrhea (Mokomane et al 2021). 

Providing rapid and easy ways to test for diarrhea-causing parasites in food, water and stool can play an instrumental role in reducing the death of one of the highest death-causing diseases for children under 5 across the globe. In particular, the children of LMICs would greatly benefit. Even today, in Nepal, we hear news almost every year about the diarrhea outbreak and it usually takes several days and deaths before one knows about the exact pathogen causing it. Being able to quickly test for pathogens in water and vegetable samples will allow mass testing in regular intervals, for instance, for the government to prevent outbreaks from happening with active surveillance. Similarly, when and if an outbreak occurs, it allows quick testing to identify the cause.  Although low-cost highly portable smart phone-based microscopy systems have shown promise to be more accessible in remote areas of LMICs compared to the more expensive traditional microscopes (Shrestha et al 2020), the lack of experts who are required to detect suspected pathogens limit the utility of these smart phone microscopes in these remote regions. Nepal Applied Mathematics and Informatics Institute for Research (NAAMII) along with Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS) is implementing project entitled AI assisted microscopy in automatic detection of parasites. This project aims to build a dataset of smartphone microscopic images from water, vegetables, human stool samples which can then be used in the future to develop artificial intelligence (AI) based automatic parasite detection software. The anonymized image dataset will be made publicly available for free, which can be used by the scientific community to further research and develop automatic parasite detection systems.  The project has been financed by Lacuna Fund and is controlled by Meridian Institute, USA and the duration of the project implementation as per contract with the Lacuna Fund is 1st March 2022 to 31 September 2023. The overall output is to support in developing a well-maintained comprehensive public dataset of smart phone microscopic images that could be used for automatic detection on diarrhea causing parasites and provide the spatio-temporal prevalence of these parasites in three provinces ie province 1, Madhesh and Sudurpaschim. 

Objectives of the Evaluation

The overall objective of the evaluation is to overview the project implementation status and its achievements. For this, following specific objectives has been set forth

• Document the interventions implementation status of the project
• Prepare the summary report detailing status, progress, suggestions and way forward

Methodology

• Desk Review

Review of existing project related documents like project proposal, donor agreement, reports and other documents as required.

• Consultation Meeting with KIAS and NAAMII

A consultation meeting will be executed with both responsible teams for pre-planning of the event. A common understanding on the field execution process shall be made.

• Site finalization and Field Visit

Through proper selection of the sites, implementation partners and beneficiaries, the field execution shall be carried.

• Preparation of the report

After event completion, all required billing, documentation and reporting shall be submitted by evaluator.

Qualification and Requirements

The ideal candidate shall have master’s degree in data science, statistics, public health, project management or other closely related subject with experience in monitoring and evaluation of three closely related projects or it can be consulting firms with all required legal requirements like PAN/VAT, Tax Clearance, Audit reports (three years at least) and proven experience in M/E of projects. For firms, the lead evaluator shall meet the ideal candidate requirements as mentioned above. The following documents shall be submitted while applying

• Technical Proposal incorporating methods and outputs clearly
• Financial Proposal with detailed breakdown
• PAN/VAT registration
• Tax Clearance (Only for firms)
• CV of team members
• Audit Reports (Only for firms)

Deliverables

The key deliverables are mentioned below:

Deliverables	Due date
Submission of Technical and Financial Proposal	14th November, 2022
Finalization of Evaluator	15th November, 2022
Orientation on project and interaction Meeting	16th November, 2022
Field execution and Data Collection	17th-23rd November, 2022
Draft Report	25th November, 2022
Final Reporting and Documentation	30th November, 2022

Estimated Budget  

The estimated budget applicable shall be prepared in detail breakdown as below and submitted with technical proposal. The applicable tax as per law of Nepal will be deducted wherever required.

SN.	Activities	Unit	Quantity	Duration (Days)	Rate	Amount (NRs)	Remarks
1	Hotel Room, Food and snack	Person
2	Travel cost	Times
3	Field stationery cost	LS
4	Communication	LS
5	Reporting cost	Person
6	VAT Applicable	Person
	Grand Total

Interest individuals or firms are requested to submit the technical and financial proposal along with above mentioned documents by 14^th November, 2022 before 5:00 pm to email [email protected]. This is first evaluation and other two evaluations are expected to be carried on May 2023 and September 2023 AD. Interested and Committed ones for all three are requested to mention it clearly on their proposal but not mandatory for one time ones.

For any further queries or questions related to this, please email to [email protected]. Please visit to www.naamii.org.np for more information. NAAMII reserves the sole right to the selection of the candidate or firm.