IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 38

a) The key driver for application
usage and adoption by health
workers is using incentive-based
remuneration in addition to the
existing payment structure;
b) Charges for mobile usage,
voice or data is not seen as a
barrier compared to the travel
expenses;
c) A health worker will be comfortable using the new technology, only if it does not burden
him/her and is easy to handle;
d) The usability framework for both
mobile and web-based applications is suitable for all key persons using mHEALTH-PHC;
e) Community and private participation is essential along
with the government; and
f) Analysis using the reporting
application instantly gives a
perspective of the prevailing
conditions in the field. This
feature of the tool is well appreciated by the planning and a
decision making authority, as
it holds tremendous potential
in preventive healthcare.

mHEALTH-PHC: Vision
for the Future
In the future, mHEALTH-PHC will
evolve according to the requirements
of the community and stakeholder
needs. We see a role for advanced
technologies to meet those needs.
for scaling up of the system and to
capture social health activist's voice
reports into text, speech recognition
technology can be incorporated for
automatic conversion from speech
into text. Similarly, for converting
doctor's handwritten prescription into
text, one may need to use handwritten script recognition. It will be useful to design an expert system module
which captures experts' diagnostic
knowledge from past medical history
of tens of thousands of patients.
The Government and National
Rural Health Mission will eventually require functionality to assess

the quality of healthcare and performance of primary health centers
and sub centers. After the improved
quality of primary health care for
the community in the current village is demonstrated, the same
model would be expanded on a sustainable basis to cover a large number of villages. In doing so, Public
Private Partnership arrangements
could play an important role.
To achieve sustainability, the beneficiaries could pay and services be
compensated according to the value
added. The business model would
require several functionalities in
mHEALTH-PHC, related to procurement, payment, audit, and quality
management, which can be provided
by connecting the tool with existing
hospital management systems. The
tool could also be useful to implement
the legal and policy framework of the
government for primary healthcare in
the country, once it is adopted by the
government.

Author Information
N. Bondale is with the School of
Tech. and Comp. Science, Tata
Inst. of fundamental Research,
Mumbai, India; email: nandini@
tifr.res.in.
S. Kimbahune IS with TCS
Innovation Labs, Tata Consultancy
Services, Mumbai, India; email:
sanjay.kimbahune@tcs.com.
Arun K. Pande is Director, IT
Innovation for Masses. Email:
drarunkpande@gmail.com.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the management of Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata
Institute of fundamental Research,
Mumbai, and the project team at
TCS Innovation Labs, Mumbai,
for their encouragement and support. The authors would also like to
thank Dr. R. Shinde, Dr. P. Sable,
Dr. S. Shanbhag and Dr. M Solanki
(G.S. Medical College & KEM

Hospital, Mumbai), and Dr. Rathod
(PHC, Khardi, Maharashtra) for
their expert guidance and support.
And last but not least, the authors
also thank the grass root healthcare workers, doctors, and ecopartners in the districts for their faith
in and continued support to the
mHEALTH-PHC program.

References

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countries: Policy white paper," United Nations
Foundation, May 2010 [Online]. Available:
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[2] W. McIver, "e-Health in the age of paradox:
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[3] J.E. Park, Textbook of Preventive and
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[7] Government of Maharashtra, Public
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[8] Office of the Registrar General & Census
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[9] A. Pande et al.,"Distributed processing
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[11] Tata Consultancy Services "mKRISHI
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aspx, accessed June 15, 2013.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2013

http://www.globalproblems-globalsolutions http://www.files.org/pdfs/mHealth_Barriers_White_ http://www.nihfw.org/ http://mohfw.nic.in/ http://http:// http://www.maha-arogya.gov.in/services/primary/ http://ehealth.posterous.com/ http://www.tcs.com/offerings/tech

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