Project Details
Description
FRHS, Columbia University and WHO have been awarded translational funding to develop and create an “mHealth Package” to facilitate and support various aspects of rural health workers’ work and enabling a flow of communication between community members, health workers and health facilities. India's rural, economically poor populations depend on health care provided by outreach and facility-based workers. But the current health management information system (HMIS) under the National rural Health Mission (NRHM) is failing to optimise these workers' performance: significant weaknesses in the predominantly paper-based HMIS are resulting in inefficiencies, inaccuracies, data under-utilisation and, crucially, missed opportunities for worker support, motivation and improvement, resulting in poor health outcomes. Mobile technologies offer the promise of enormous advances in such environments, with the potential to empower health workers through instantaneous communication and feedback, delivery of up-to-date educational content, alerts and reminders, remote support from experts and performance monitoring. This project, to be piloted in Karnataka state, under the supervision of Dr Nirmala Murthy, will develop an "mHealth Package"- a strategic mix of mobile technology applications and support materials - to support NRHM reproductive, maternal and child health (RMCH) services. The technology will emphasise ease of use by low-literacy individuals, will be provided free of charge, and is envisaged for massive scale-up following rigorous pilot testing, impact assessment and revision. The resultant intervention will empower rural health workers and their clients along the continuum of RMCH care, integrating and streamlining data with existing HMIS standards for enhanced provider performance and population health outcomes.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 1/10/11 → 9/30/15 |
Funding
- Wellcome Trust: US$755,367.00
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Reproductive Medicine
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