Use Of Mobile Technology For Strengthening Monitoring Of Primary Health Care Services In Rajasthan

Use of ICT is changing the way health services are delivered. It also has tremendous role to play in strengthening management and monitoring of health services. Rajasthan is India’s geographically largest state and the state lags the country on most of the socio-economic & health related indicators. One of the key challenge faced in terms of ensuring proper functioning of health facilities was lack of proper monitoring and supportive supervision mechanism. The monitoring visits by district officials were few and also there was lack of mechanism to follow-up on the gaps identified during the visit. Hence, to strengthen the monitoring of primary health care facilities, facilitate data driven decision making and ensure timely solution of gaps identified, a mobile application along with accompanied website was developed. The mobile application was used by around 3000 officials for monitoring of more than 15,000 primary health facilities in the State. In a year, more than 70,000 visits were undertaken using this application and it has facilitated systematic collection of the data & provided facility for addressing the gaps & monitoring the improvement. It was a cost effective & efficient way for strengthening primary health care services and highlights tremendous potential of mobile in strengthening management of health services.