Rapid sociometric mapping of community health workers to identify opinion leaders using an SMS platform: a short report.

Background: Using opinion leaders to accelerate the dissemination of evidence-based public health practices is a promising strategy for closing the gap between evidence and practice. Network interventions (using social network data to accelerate behavior change or improve organizational performance) are a promising but under-explored strategy. We aimed to use mobile phone technology to rapidly and inexpensively map a social network and identify opinion leaders among community health workers in a large HIV program in western Kenya.