PONE-D-22-07674Service Availability and Readiness of Malaria Surveillance Information Systems Implementation at Primary Health Centers in IndonesiaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Veruswati,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we felt that your manuscript requires substantial revision, following which it can possibly be reconsidered, thus governing the decision of a “major revision”. As requested by the reviewers, the authors need to address several concerns, particularly related to the data analysis and methods (insufficient methodology for readers). Por example, the reviewer suggests that perhaps a logistic predictive model to analyze the availability of the information system according to several predictors may be preferred. Finally, considering  the study  falls into very local aspects, the author should clarify about  its interpretation and generalization. For your guidance, a copy of the reviewers' comments was included below.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 15 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Luzia Helena Carvalho, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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"This research was funded by NIHRD Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia."

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: PONE-D-22-07674

This is a brief description of the implementation and usage of an electronic information system (SISMAL) for malaria surveillance activities in Indonesia.

Increasing the capacity to implement digital health has been prioritized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as it could play a major role in accelerating progress towards achieving universal health coverage (https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_20-en.pdf). This experience could be of interest for lower-middle income countries (LMICs) interested in programmatic information systems and to understand potential limitations for implementation. However, the work falls into very local aspects that can complicate its interpretation and generalization.

Please find below some comments by sections

INTRODUCTION

It is unclear to me if the electronic malaria surveillance information system (E-SISMAL) is linked to a global information system of the country or is dedicated (i.e: malaria only).

METHODS

Interviews

Are the items of the interview considered arbitrarily? have been used in previous studies? Any rationale for the “Readiness score”?

Analysis

Perhaps a logistic predictive model to analyze the availability of the information system (yes/no) according to several predictors may be preferred. What was the rationale to use a linear regression analysis here? - The multiplicity of models declared here “The data was analyzed using bivariate, multivariate, and linear regression analysis” may require further detail.

DISCUSSION

The “mobile phone–based SISMAL” solution to encourage case reporting should necessarily consider a comment on the mobile phone utilization in the country. Moreover, I would have expected a comment on other experiences being carried out in similar countries. This restrict the interest to the local.

Reviewer #2: The paper discusses the service availability and readiness of PHCs in malaria surveillance in Indonesia. This is an important reporting for the malaria control community.

All my comments are included within the pdf document provided, in the comments section. Please access this pdf and respond conclusively to all the comments.

In summary, my main concerns are as follows:

1. Study design not stated in the methods section

2. Please add a concluding statement in the abstract. What does these results mean? Why is this study important?

3. Clearly explain in the methods section, the sampling techniques used

4. The statistical analysis techniques used in the study needs to be clearly rewritten and reported

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Collins Okoyo

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-07674_reviewer_comments_CO.pdf

PONE-D-22-07674R1Service Availability and Readiness of Malaria Surveillance Information Systems Implementation at Primary Health Centers in IndonesiaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Veruswati,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript for review to PLoS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that your manuscript will likely be suitable for publication if the authors revise it to address critical points raised now by the reviewer.  According to reviewer, there are some specific areas where further improvements would be of substantial benefit to the readers.A copy of the reviewers’ comments was included for your information.  

Please submit your revised manuscript by February 20. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Luzia H Carvalho, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: The manuscript presented by Meita Veruswati et al. reports on Service Availability and Readiness of Malaria Surveillance Information Systems Implementation at Primary Health Centers in Indonesia. The authors present a descriptive assessment of the availability and readiness of the electronic malaria surveillance information system (E-SISMAL).

In general, the manuscript is well written, interesting, and very useful to the malaria community. I have only few issues which need addressing/clarification.

Minor issues

1. The author should briefly describe in method, what malaria data is being collected by E-SISMAL system and the frequency of collection, is it daily, weekly or monthly? Does it collecting routine malaria data, case-based surveillance system (CBS) or non-routine? Is it the only system for malaria surveillance in Indonesia? If yes, how does malaria data being collected in the areas where E-SISMAL/SISMAL is not implemented?

This is probably beyond the scope of this manuscript, but at least to understand the process of malaria surveillance in Indonesia.

2. In line 25: I like the way the authors present the result by strata, but the authors should clarify how these strata (low, high, and moderate) financial capacity is defined. The definition can be included here or in the method.

3. Line 76; Author mentioned application implemented in several districts, please indicate the number of districts in which SISMAL was implemented. And how many districts were targeted. To understand the coverage for E-SISMAL implementation at that time (2012).

4. In Line 270; I advise author to include this reference from WHO

"WHO Malaria elimination framework 2017" https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254761/9789241511988-eng.pdf

5. In discussion section: The author explained very well the result of SISMAL, however I feel that the discussion could be strengthened a bit i.e., To describe how the NMCP /government can improve the availability of SISMAL in across all PHC. example the SISMAL now is implemented as standalone/web app which operate within the specific facility. There is need for a government to find a best approach to role out the system to all health facilities and have standardize and centralized system for malaria surveillance across the country.

Reviewer #4: In this manuscript, Herawati et al. present the results of a descriptive study of a Malaria Epidemiological Information System (SISMAL) in Indonesia. Basically, the authors describe the proportions of information´s availability and readiness in 400 health units randomly chosen among those that provide primary health care in 7 provinces spread across the country.

I revised a version of the manuscript in which I found a tracked changes revision performed by reviewer 1, along with all response from the authors were showed to all his comments. All the reviewer´s comments were addressed by the authors.

Although it is an essentially descriptive study, the authors carried out a comparative analysis to assess the association between the proportions of availability and readiness of the information system (SISMAL) with some characteristics related to the provinces where the health units are located, such as location (remote and border área), regional financial capacity, and regional status according to the malaria program (under elimination or

The manuscript is well written, with correct and clear English. The study methodology is adequate to respond to the study objectives. The data are well analyzed and the conclusion of the study is adequate to the observed results. The only point that I consider necessary to clarify in the Abstract is the authors' statement that "the readiness of SISMAL in these UBS is significantly related to the DTPK area, endemicity status and financial capacity”. In this sentence, it is important to clarify which categories of these variables were, in fact, associated with SISMAL readiness. That is, what were the categories of variables that were associated? Central or remote location? Endemic or elimination area? High or low financial capacity?

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

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Reviewer #3: Yes: Joseph J. Joseph

Reviewer #4: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Service Availability and Readiness of Malaria Surveillance Information Systems Implementation at Primary Health Centers in Indonesia

PONE-D-22-07674R2

Dear Dr. Veruswati,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Luzia H Carvalho, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: Overall, the manuscript is well-crafted, captivating, and highly valuable to the community involved in malaria research. The author(s) have effectively addressed all the concerns I raised

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #3: Yes: Joseph Joachim Joseph

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