mHEALTH-PHC: A community informatic tool for primary healthcare in India

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made a significant impact on the functioning of enterprises and the urban communities. However benefits of ICT revolution are yet to reach the rural communities. In this paper, we show how communities in rural area can benefit from informatics, for their primary healthcare needs. We describe an innovative community informatic tool called `mHEALTH- Primary Health Care' (mHEALTH-PHC), to meet the primary healthcare requirements of the community, developed after studying the needs and the logistic problems related to primary healthcare of the rural tribal population in villages. The paper also covers the adoption challenges and how they are dealt with. mHEALTH-PHC solution is designed, considering the existing infrastructure of public health system in the rural area. The field experience shows that healthcare personnel involved at various levels in Primary Health Center (PHC) are comfortable in using the tool and are enthusiastic to employ such a tool for efficient service to the community. Satisfaction of both, the health personnel and the end beneficiaries is the first level of success for making a mark. mHEALTH-PHC has crossed the first level barrier.