e-Health and Environment

e - Praja Suwa Arunalu

Producer : Dr. E.S.S. Rodrigo, PGIM & Health Information Society of Sri Lanka and Provincial Director of Health Services, Sabaragamuwa Province

Media Format :Offline (standalone systems)

Producer’s Description

Public Health Midwives (PHM) in Sri Lanka is involved in preventive maternal and child healthcare activities on the field. The PHM maintains a number of routine documents to enable dissemination of data to regional and central levels. Traditionally these documents are maintained manually. It has been revealed that quality and timeliness of service delivery by the PHMs on the field is adversely affected by the heavy load of paper work necessitated in keeping these records and registers updated.

Praja Suwa Arunalu is a system that simplifies this cumbersome record keeping thereby giving the PHMs more time to involve themselves in on field healthcare activities. It also provides instant access to health information pertaining to the community served by them. Supervision, monitoring and evaluation of the field activities of the PHMs are also facilitated by this system. Another key advantage is that it is possible to generate several routine reports and returns that can then be escalated to regional and central levels. In addition it can store maps of the area and has the facility to mark index cases.

Jurors' Evaluation               

Maintenance of several registries is a part of the daily routine of Public Health Midwives (PHMs). They spend considerable amount of time on these tasks, which otherwise could be spent on servicing daily healthcare requirements of the community. The paper work involved is cumbersome and tedious - often repetitive and at times involving lengthy calculations.

e-Praja Suwa Arunalu has sought to address this problem and thereby make the daily routine of PHMs more efficient and effective. The light weight public health information system installed on a mini laptop is a powerful portable public health information tool, supplementing the PHM Diary and twenty odd daily registers. It also functions as a data aggregation tool for the District Health Information System, a WHO recommended public health reporting system.

Currently it is being piloted in the area under the jurisdiction of the Ratnapura Regional Director of Health Services and has rapidly gained popularity among PHMs involved. It helps PHMs to reduce paper work, and improve the data quality through semi automation of daily routines and calculations. e-Praja Suwa Arunalu is equipped with features to identify health problems and plan and track preventive measures, monitor and analyse grass root level data. It also has in built supervisory, monitoring and documentation tools to support higher level officers such as the Medical Officer of Health (MOH). Another noteworthy feature is the facility for digital mapping of households. The system addresses maternal and child health care as well as well woman care undertaken by the PHMs.