A Health Informatics Reporting System for Technology Illiterate Workforce Using Mobile Phone

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Informatics
• Global Health

Background:

• Reducing neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality is a global health priority.
• Accurate, grassroot-level data are crucial for effective mortality reduction strategies.
• Existing data estimation methods are often insufficient for developing countries with diverse demographics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To automate verbal autopsy reporting for neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality.
• To develop a user-centered design for a technologically illiterate workforce with limited resources.
• To innovate a real-time reporting system for timely mortality data collection and policy intervention.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Neonatal, Infant, and Maternal Death E-surveillance System.
• Focused on user-centered design principles for accessibility.
• Implemented a pilot study in nine districts of Punjab, Pakistan, followed by refinement based on user feedback.
• Expanded the refined system to all 36 districts of Punjab.

Main Results:

• Achieved a 31% improvement in infant mortality data collection.
• Observed a 6% improvement in maternal mortality data collection.
• Demonstrated the system's utility in detecting mortality causes and informing policy.

Conclusions:

• The research successfully demonstrated the feasibility of gathering real-time mortality data from grassroot levels.
• User-centered design methodology is effective for implementing health surveillance systems in resource-limited settings.
• The developed system is a valuable tool for achieving milestones in mortality data collection and reduction efforts.