News

Technology helping babies get on-time vaccinations

February 23, 2011

Parents of newborn babies in Kerala, a state in the southwestern part of India, will soon receive text messages on their cell phones about vaccination details for their babies.

Information Kerala Mission (IKM), the flagship e-governance project of the Kerala government, has developed the system as a part of its Janasevanakendram Hospital Kiosk program.

The first hospital kiosk was launched in 2005 by IKM, under the Local Self Government (LSG) Department. The kiosk facilitates online registration of births and deaths directly from kiosks in about 350 hospitals in Kerala.

About 60 percent of the state's births are registered online. The IKM's strategy is to collect data from where it originates, so that civil and community databases will be transparent, and the government can target the beneficiaries of any welfare measures efficiently.

The technology makes birth and death certificates available to informants within 24 hours of registration. Marriage certificates are also done the same way.

Pings for vaccination
Starting next month, parents who register their children's birth online via hospital kiosks will receive text messages from the Health Department about vaccine information, said A Shaji, the director of Implementation for IKM.

"The mobile numbers mentioned in the birth registration forms will be collected and details of vaccination will be sent as SMS to the number," he said."There are several vaccinations and injections to be administered to the new-born babies. The SMS facility will help parents to remember the exact date and period of vaccinations and its significance. Eeach and every detail of vaccination and the numbers of parents will be fed and updated in the software."

However, Shaji said the accuracy of updates in rural areas may be a challenge.

"People, especially those from remote areas will not come to city hospitals for vaccination or related activities," he said. "They will surely go to their nearer primary health centers for that. Those regional health centers may not have the facility to ensure whether the parents, who got the SMS alert, have come and take vaccination for this child."

He said the lack of a fool-proof system to register, monitor, and update all vaccination procedures keeps the department from ensuring that all new born babies are vaccinated. He hopes doctors at primary health centers that don't have kiosks will send parents updates via e-mails and texts.