Transcript Commcare ASHA PPT

CommCare ASHA
e-Health
India Health Acton Trust (IHAT)
in partnership with
Dimagi and Save the Children
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
 The CommCare mobile application in Kishangarh, Rajasthan has
been developed in collaboration with Save the Children and India
Health Action Trust (IHAT).
 The project aims to reduce maternal and neonatal mortalities in
Rajasthan through effective counseling and increasing awareness
about pregnancy and neonatal danger signs, nutrition, iron
supplementation, emergency preparedness, encouraging choice
of delivering at institutions and de-constructing myths
surrounding pregnancy and newborn care practices.
 The application was deployed with 10 ASHAs in May ’11. Scaled
the use of the application to 70 ASHAs in Jan ’12.
 The CommCare application in Kishangarh contains two modules,
one for monitoring the health of pregnant women and the other
to monitor the health of children aged 0-2 years.
 Features of the mobile application include a case list of mothers
and newborns, registration forms, checklists for pregnant
women, immunizations checklist for newborns, forms with
multimedia-supported counselling messages.
UNIQUENESS AND IMPACT
 Case Management: The CommCare application helps ASHAs track
multiple mother-child cases over time and promotes timely visits.
 Well-structured checklists in the CommCare application have improved
ASHAs’ knowledge and skill levels.
 Multimedia-supported messages: Audio recorded in the Marwari dialect
of Rajasthan and clearly-designed images improve an ASHA’s engagement
with her beneficiary, serve as an effective counselling tool and attract the
attention of key decision-makers such as the mother-in-law.
 In our user feedback we found that CommCare builds credibility of the ASHA.
 Use of local language in audio has made the application more user-friendly.
 Application use in zero network connectivity: An ASHA can use the
mobile application in the absence of network connectivity.
 Monitoring and evaluation: Real time information can be accessed by
the supervisors. Monitoring reports on the server help track worker
performance. Data helps supervisors support ANMs at monthly Primary
Health Center meetings to provide feedback about ASHA performance.
 Preliminary evidence shows that good monitoring processes are positively
correlated with better performance by ASHAs.
ROADMAP
 In Rajasthan, IHAT shared the concept with the health department
at the district level, they were very positive to continue with it.
 IHAT now has organizational capacity to continue implementation
of the mobile health project in Kishangarh and scale in
neighbouring areas with some initial training and support from
Dimagi.
 IHAT with Dimagi has developed a similar application for its PPTCT
project in two new districts; being used by the 28 Field Level
Functionaries.
 Further, we are interested in building the capacity of other NGOs
operating in the region to implement mobile health interventions
of their own.
 The CommCare application in Kishangarh can be supplemented
with referral SMS messages that would inform health authorities
and ANMs of pregnant mother identified with any danger signs.
THANK YOU
Priyamvada Singh, Ph.D
INDIA HEALTH ACTION TRUST-IHAT