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Topic 9 of 18

Entering Case Based Data

Step by Step Guide: Event Programs, Stages and the Capture App

Purpose of this guide

Monthly totals answer how many. They cannot answer who, or how old, or how quickly somebody was treated. This guide builds an event program, gives it the questions asked about each case, and enters real cases in the Capture app.

Step 1: Aggregate or Case Based

Everything so far has been totals: one number per facility per month. Case based data is one row per case, which lets you ask questions a total can never answer, such as the age of the people testing positive.

AggregateCase based, event program
One record isA month for a facilityOne case, one visit, one test
Entered inThe Data Entry appThe Capture app
Built fromData set and formProgram and program stage
Good forRoutine monthly reportingLine lists, outbreak follow up, case investigation
RegistrationNoneWithout registration for events, with registration to follow a person over time
Step 2: Open the Program Section
Click: Maintenance app → PROGRAM tab
Figure 1. The PROGRAM tab. This picture was drawn for the guide. Your screen will show your own names and dates.
  1. 1The tab. Where case based work is configured.
  2. 2Side menu. The same items as the cards.
  3. 3Program. The thing you create first.
  4. 4Program stage. The form a case is entered on.
  5. 5Program rule. Show, hide or warn, based on what was typed.
  6. 6Tracked entity type. Only needed when you follow a person over time.
Step 3: Create the Event Program

An event program without registration is the simplest case based setup: one record per case, with nobody registered and nothing to follow up.

Figure 2. The program form. This picture was drawn for the guide. Your screen will show your own names and dates.
  1. 1Name. Malaria Case Register.
  2. 2Short name. What appears in lists and charts.
  3. 3Program type. Event program, without registration.
  4. 4Display incident date. When the case happened, as well as when it was entered.
  5. 5Organisation units. Tick the facilities that will use it. Nobody else sees it.
  6. 6SAVE. The program now needs a stage, which is the next step.
Step 4: Add the Stage and Its Data Elements

The stage is the form. Its data elements are the questions asked about each case, and they are ordinary data elements, created exactly as in the data elements topic.

Figure 3. The program stage. This picture was drawn for the guide. Your screen will show your own names and dates.
  1. 1Name. Malaria case.
  2. 2Report date description. What the date on the form means, for example date seen at facility.
  3. 3Available. Every data element in the system.
  4. 4Selected. The questions for one case: age, sex, test result, treatment.
  5. 5SAVE. The form is now ready in the Capture app.
Use option sets: sex, test result and treatment should be dropdown lists, not free text, or the line list becomes impossible to count.
Step 5: Enter Cases in the Capture App
Click: Apps menu → Capture → choose the program and the facility → NEW EVENT
Figure 4. Entering one case. This picture was drawn for the guide. Your screen will show your own names and dates.
  1. 1Program. Malaria Case Register.
  2. 2Organisation unit. The facility.
  3. 3NEW EVENT. Opens the blank form.
  4. 4The date. When the case was seen.
  5. 5The questions. One answer per data element.
  6. 6Treatment. A dropdown, so the answers can be counted.
  7. 7Events today. What has already been entered, so nothing is typed twice.
Step 6: Read the Line List
Figure 5. One row per case. This picture was drawn for the guide. Your screen will show your own names and dates.
  1. 1The program and facility. What you are looking at.
  2. 2The date column. Sort by it to see today.
  3. 3The answers. One column per data element.
  4. 4Status. Active or completed. Complete an event when nothing more will be added.
  5. 5What this gives you. Counts by age, by sex, by result, which an aggregate total cannot.
QuestionAnswer from
How many cases this monthEither model
How many were under fiveCase based only
How many positives got treatment the same dayCase based only
National trend over three yearsAggregate, which is far lighter
Step 7: Analyse Case Based Data
AppWhat it does with events
Line ListingThe raw rows, filtered and downloadable
Event ReportsCounts and pivot tables of events
Event VisualizerCharts of the same
MapsAn event layer, one dot per case
Program indicatorsRates built from events, usable on a dashboard beside aggregate ones
Before you promise case based reporting: it multiplies the typing. One facility with 400 cases a month enters 400 forms instead of one. Use it where the detail changes a decision, not everywhere.

Final Checklist

Entering Case Based Data