Every death counts: electronic tracking systems for maternal death review in India

Maternal death review (MDR) is an important strategy to improve the quality of obstetric care and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. MDR provides detailed information on various factors at community, facility, and district levels that influence maternal health outcomes. One of the key challenges is to analyze large volumes of data collected via a paper-based system that uses facility and community level forms. This database continues to expand quantitatively (multiple forms and data elements), which makes analysis of data increasingly difficult for timely management and analysis. The present paper describes the development process involved in linking the paper-based system with an electronic system for MDR in India. The lessons learnt from this experience can contribute to understanding how innovative technologies can be used to address large-scale public health issues in low-resource countries and in particular solutions to address maternal health.