MCHS: an application software for family welfare programmes

At the level of first contact, a primary health care centre, information management is an unwieldy task, therefore health information systems are reported to be inadequate and weak. Microcomputers could improve information management at this level, but there is little success due to a lack of specialized application software. In this paper we describe software developed after a multi-centre systems analysis study, on an essential data set, to support the delivery of the public health programmes for family welfare, i.e. maternal health care, family planning and immunization programmes. The modular approach was taken to develop a common application software for information management use at multiple sites. The software is tested in a laboratory mode by retrospective data entry from sites in Sweden and in India. All the information could be entered and site-specific reports that were generated are compared. The software provided a common data collection format, an essential platform for outcomes research.