Doctor on DVD: Virtual health consultation using interactive DVDs

Healthcare facilities in rural areas often lack staff, necessary resources and infrastructure. People in rural areas have to travel long distances to avail basic healthcare facilities. The cost of travel and healthcare consultation in nearby towns is prohibitive for many low-income people. We have anecdotally observed that the penetration of Television (TV) and DVD players in rural areas is higher than smartphones. In this work-in-progress concept note, we advocate an interactive DVD based healthcare decision support system for diagnosis and consultation of common diseases like dysentery, diarrhea, pneumonia etc. on the basis of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines. The interactive components of the DVD, videos of doctors speaking in local language, graphics, and animations can be used to provide contextual health information in a usable and intuitive manner.