e-Immunisation

2003-12-08T03:31:00.000-08:00

Discussions With Govt. Of Andhra Pradesh

I met Secretary Heath & Family Welfare and apprised about our project. The Andhra Govt. is very positive towards the implementation of 'e-Immunisation'. She has extended all the help for doing field study in the state. I will be visiting different places in the state and will interview Health Assistants and get first hand information on users perspective. I will also interact with the team of IIIT students and Prof. Soon.

2003-11-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

Requirements of the Handheld Device for the
‘e-Immunisation’ Project

1) Capability to store 10000 to 20000 records in it
(App. 20 fields)

2)In order to update the immunized baby record in the field, we need to store the required slice of the family (health)database on the handheld before hand. Say the health assistant normally looks after clusters of 4to 8 villages. Average population per village is 2000. Records need to be searched in the field before immunisation is done, and need to be updated on the spot after the immunization.

3)Handheld should able to capture new births details in an existing record from the family database directly and store it till it is synchronized with the main database. Wherever there is no family record itself, it should able to capture and store the family details in it and then adding the baby record. Immunisation data is only incremental and added for every immunisation where the frequency for child is monthly and for the Health Assistant her visits to the immunisation center are weekly.

4)Data need to be synchronised with the database
server with phone and GSM communications(offline).
Hence it should have an inbuilt phone modem. It should also have a GSM / CDMA modem in built or external to communicate the data to the main server through phone or cellular device whichever is more feasible in the field.

5) We are planning to give receipt of the vaccination of baby to the parent at the time of immunization. Hence the handheld should have preferably a small printer integrated (Like a grocery shop printer which prints on paper rolls) or it should have a printer port to connect it to external small printer which must be portable and should consume less power. The inbuilt printer must consume very less power.

6) Handheld device should have a smart card writer inbuilt so that it can write on a smart card and also can read from it in the field. It is planned to issue smart cards to the parents who have registered baby’s birth with the local health machinery and the smart card needs updation of schedules and also of immunization history of the baby at the time of each immunization.

7) The Handheld device should be programmable to suit the tailored needs. Preferably in C or Java or any higher language.
8) The device should provide the support for the Local Language, Telugu as the original database is bilingual. There are telugu entries in the database
Moreover, the success rate will be more if the operation of handheld is in the local language.

8) Handheld device should have a very clear display and should not be like the regular PDAs which can’t be read in the bright sunlight environment in the field at immunization centers.
9) Handheld should have a weatherproof and waterproof design. (Suitable for Indian village
conditions...dust and rain etc.)

Device in the following categories are broadly suitable:
1)PDAs
2)Simputer
3)Nokia phones Java Enabled
4)Symbol manufactured handheld
5)2T manufactured Handhelds

2003-11-16T22:56:00.000-08:00

Rajendra Nimje a Digital Vision Fellow is working on the project 'e-Immunisation'. The project aims at increasing the reach of immunisation in developing countries with the help of ICT. Health Worker at the field level will capture the immunisation details on a handheld device which will have babies data feed to it. After giving the shot to the baby on weekly immunisation days in a village, the health worker will update the shot history. She will generate receipt to the parents/guardians for the shot given which will also indicate the next shot and date on the receipt to remind the parents. Afterwards, she will generate the immunisation schedule for next week for the same cluster of villages. The baby's data will also be captured and updated on Smart Cards on each immunisation shots. The Smart Card will be issued on registration of birth and will be retained by the parents. This card will be used as health card in future.

As each and every registered baby is tracked for each type of iummunisation, it is felt that the targetting will be more focused and the drop out rate will fall drastically. Health Worker can also cover the weekly drop outs by reminding the parents in their other activity visits in the villages.