The messaging service WhatsApp is being used in Syria to help monitor and collect data on attacks on health care workers and facilities, providing robust data in support of advocacy and accountability efforts.

The system, which enables teams to share data about attacks within 24 hours, identified 402 attacks against health care in Syria between November 2015 and December 2016, according to a new study in The Lancet. The study shows that during this year of the study, nearly half of hospitals in non-government controlled areas were attacked and a third of services were hit more than once.

Attacks on health care have reached unprecedented levels in Syria, now in its 7th year of conflict. Collecting robust and reliable data is important to convince the international community to enforce legal protections, and to achieve accountability for widespread breaches of international law.    

From November 2015 to December 2016, 402 individual attacks were identified, of which 158 were verified.