Forum on the mobile eco-system in Nepal
Mobile Technology in
Public Health Service Delivery
Chahana Singh Rana
Use of Mobile technology for reporting
of polio campaign in eight districts of
central and eastern terai in Nepal
(Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Saptari, Siraha)
• Concept
: UNICEF Nepal
• Technical Support
: Young Innovative
• Financial Support
: UNICEF
Outline of the presentation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Objective
System Requirements
Outcomes
Issues/Concerns
Next Steps
1.Objective
• SMS reporting of the coverage of Polio
campaign by every VDC and municipality in
eight districts using SMS mobile technology
• Immediate SMS reporting of any Adverse
Events Following Immunization and early
action by the concerned individuals
2. Systems Requirement
• A short-code 3344 registered with NTC for the purpose
• Web-based interface created and synchronized with
the SMS messaging to record all the messages.
• A five-digit unique identifier code for each VDC used
following the footprints of Central Bureau of Statistics
• In-charges of all health institutes in eight districts
oriented on the reporting through SMS using shortcode 3344 prior to the campaign
• A flyer was developed both in English and Nepali
language for the ease of health providers
• Each user only allowed to SMS only ONCE for the VDC
Web-Interface
• Registered as www.nip.org.np/polio
• Reported data on coverage and number of
children vaccinated synchronized with the
web- the key word was POL
• Editing of the data was only possible to
selected super-users and HW were asked to
call a number if they had to edit the data
• Log of all SMS were kept
The Flyer on “How to Report”
a) To register the moblie in the system
•Open the message box and type
<POL>space<VDC Code>space<Y>
• Send to 3344
• After registrations a message
confirming registration similar to
this will be sent to user:
Thank you. You have been
registered for Rampur VDC 10101
b) To send report of the campaign
• Open your message box and type
<POL>space<VDC
code>space<coverage> space <no. of
children vaccinated>
• Send to 3344
• After reporting the following message
appears:
Thank you. Your information has
been captures for Rampur.
Coverage:58%
No of children: 2098
The VDC Code
ASINPL002006033
ASINPL002006033000
ASINPL002006033001
ASINPL002006033002
ASINPL002006033003
ASINPL002006033004
ASINPL002006033005
ASINPL002006033006
ASINPL002006033007
ASINPL002006033008
ASINPL002006033009
ASINPL002006033010
Bara
Parsa Wildlife Reserve
Amarpatti
Amlekhganj
Amritgang
Avab
Babuain
Bachhanpurwa
Badakifulbariya
Bagahi
Bahuari
Balirampur
33000
33001
33002
33003
33004
33005
33006
33007
33008
33009
33010
Original code
from CBS
Revised code
with last five
digits from CBS
The first two digit for the district and last
three digits for the VDC
3. Outcome
• Only 9 VDCs of 4 districts reported
• The SMS system was not able to meet the
intended purpose
4. Issues /Concerns
• The SMS gateway of N-Cell mobiles and CDMA
phones were not available
• No baseline data available on the types of mobile
phones used by health workers. Many had N-cell
and CDMA phones thus limiting them to send the
messages
• Many health workers surprisingly had limited
knowledge on use of SMS in cell phones.
• The NTC gateway for its transmission towers in 4
of the 8 districts were switched off thus health
workers were not able to use the SMS short code
5. Next Steps
• Take corrective measures for all issues identified
• Support from N-Cell and NTC , the two major
service providers is vital.
• Addition of incentives for the use of SMS
technology. A talk time of NRs 50-100 will be
provided in future.
• Transfer the ownership of the system to GON
with minimal technical and financial support .
• Make a free domain for all viewers with server
hosted with the HMIS section of MOHP
5. Next Steps
• Use of same technology for the additional purposes viz:
– Up-coming Measles campaign all over the country
– Routine immunization data reporting (discussion on
going with Child Health Division)
– Surveillance data reporting for vaccine preventable
diseases (discussion on going in WHO –IPD)
– Pilot SMS reporting of Key maternal and Child health
indicators for Health Management Information
System (Preliminary discussion with DFID ongoing)
THANKYOU
Concept
Technical Support
Financial Support
: UNICEF Nepal
: Young Innovatives
: UNICEF