It’s a marriage of strengths of an IT company, a telecom operator, electronic goods manufacturer, State government and an international NGO. The objective is to deliver a mobile solution that will help reduce deaths among newborns and mothers in rural India.
mSehat, is an integrated mobile platform developed by Hyderabad-based Kellton Tech that has gone live in Uttar Pradesh recently.
It is a cloud hosted solution to facilitate remote access and enrolment through 2G enabled devices. Health workers will carry mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. The data gathered in realtime will help health superintendents to maintain health reports of mother and the child, and ensure proper, timely medication and nutrition for them.
Kellton Tech is the technology provider, implementor and part-funding house of the novel initiative.
Rural UP on digital map The telecom operator, Airtel, has designed the cloud infrastructure (2G, SIM and data points) while the electronics goods manufacturer, Videocon, is giving the mobile devices. Intra Health, the Washington-based NGO is extending technical expertise, says Niranjan Chintam, founder and Chairman, Kellton Tech.
“It’s a small step to put rural UP (which has perhaps the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality) onto the mobile, digital India map. The means are entirely ‘Make in India’ and the experience that would be captured in electronic records, should be useful in evolving relevant models in other States to replicate in future,” he told BusinessLine here.
The initial implementation would be in five districts (Mirzapur, Faizabad, Sitapur, Bareilly and Kannauj), and it is expected to be extended to the entire State later. About 10,252 workers of ASHA (Accreditated Social Health Activists) will be given a smart phone each, while 1,719 Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs) will get a tablet along with 300 medical officers and SIFPSA staff in phase-1.
Joint endeavour The SIFPSA (State Innovations in Family Planning Services Agency) is a joint endeavour of the Government of India, UP State and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for implementing the Innovations in Family Planning Services (IFPS) project in the State. The UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the initiative on October 12.
According to Niranjan, the company has leveraged its expertise in SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) towards the implementation and completion of this project. “We want to harness the power of IT to improve the public healthcare services.” The project will be run over the next three years.
Correction
Niranjan Chintam is founder and Chairman of Kellton Tech, and not CEO, as an earlier version of the story said.