– By Ting Shih
Society for Nutrition, Education & Health Action (SNEHA http://www.snehamumbai.org) pioneers using smart phones (Android) and ClickMedix mhealth program for maternal/child risk screening in Mumbai, India.
It all started with an email…
From SNEHA project coordinator: We are launching several new initiatives in which are quite large in scale and would benefit from the use of mobile monitoring… One of the projects is to monitor all malnourished under 3s in Dharavi and a key component of the intervention will be door to door monitoring by community health workers and peer educators. Since we are currently projecting that we will be directly monitoring approximately 9,000 malnourished under 3s, it is crucial we find better ways to understand our data in real time. We also need to understand the costs for implementing this kind of a system, including technical assistance.
In response, I wrote:
1. You provide contact information of doctors that would serve your patient community, if you don’t have any at this point we may be able to help you identify them
Soon after developing risk screening questions, we deployed SNEHA maternal / child risk monitoring in Hindi, on Samsung Galaxy Y devices which are readily available in Mumbai.
The responses from health workers are very positive, and health workers welcomed the use of new technology.
Sabina is one of the 18 health workers responsible for surveying mothers and children in Mumbai SNEHA project site. When asked about her experience, she said:
Now we are in a computer world and everywhere computers are being used. In my area while filling the form on the mobile I feel proud…Community people are surprised that we are filling their form in mobiles and not on paper.
Similarly, Udaykumari Biju said, “When I used screen touch mobile I feel very good. When I used it I was eager to know more about the menu and the various options; I used it very easily.”
Within about 3 months, the 18 health workers completed their initial risk screening and screened over 200 mothers and children. Each submission contains GPS data and customized responses to their survey questionnaires. All data collected can be exported to facilitate development of associated intervention programs faster than ever before. For more information, contact info@clickmedix.com or visit SNEHA Mumbai (http://www.snehamumbai.org/).
