Chairperson: Alka Malhotra, Communication for Development Specialist, UNICEF

Co-Chair & Moderator: Shamarukh Alam, Director (Programs and Innovations), DNet

Jury Expert View: N. Ramakrishnan, Director of Projects, Ideosync Media Combine

Workshop presenters (name, organization):

• Vikas Chauhan, Healthkart Plus, Bright Life care Pvt. Ltd., India
• Nikhil Narayan, Country Product Lead, Diabetes – Awareness & Prevention through Mobile Innovation, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd., India

• Lakshmi Panat, Principal Technical Officer, Mobile Based Surveillance Quest Using It (MoSQuIT), Centre For Development Of Advanced Computing (CDAC), India
• Jaydeep Gupta, Campaign Advisory Manager, Friends2support.Org, India
• Matt Theis, India Country Director, Scale-Up And Replication of Commcare in Bihar, Dimagi Inc., India
• Siddharth Rao, Founder Director, Health Wellness & Fitness (HeWeFi), Medisurge Technologies Private Limited, India
• Shyam Tandon, Chief Operations Officer, Sevamob, India

Objectives of the workshop:

• The importance of Mobile content in developing the facilities & reach of Health services to the users;
• How mobile content in health services delivery with affordable quality and accessible
• content and services overcoming time, geographical, economic and social limitations;
• How Mobile can be used as an alternative towards providing health and tele-health services.

The first speaker was Vikas Chauhan from Healthkart Plus. He showed an app that answers all are health related questions such as what medicine to buy, what precautions to take etc. It is the first app in the market that focuses on the health issues. It has a comprehensive approach as the app not only tells us the components in a medicine but also how a medicine works. The whole fundamental idea is to make us aware of the medicines around us. It helps a layman understand the world of prescriptions around him and thus reduces the medical costs. The app informs us regarding the risks associated with the drug. They are using the technology to bridge the gap between a layman and a doctor and as it is free of cost, it makes it more economical. The unique thing with their approach is that even if you don’t have a smartphone and you can’t download the app, you can still use it, as all the information is provided on SMS as well, which is quite impressive. They work really hard not only to provide all the information but also fulfil the need of the common people.

The second speaker was Nikhil Narayan, Diabetes – Awareness & Prevention through Mobile Innovation. He explained that this application is specifically for our health care services. It is not just specific to Diabetes; they also provide information on heart and respiratory etc. The app is available on mobile starting from ₹1000. They provide a platform and work with their partners which they call an ecosystem. They partnered with Arogya World, which is a US based NGO with expertise in communicable diseases. They make us aware of the situations we could face and what actions we could take in those situations. They also shared what preventions we could take to avoid diabetes.  The research has shown that people have adapted to a behavioural change after using the app.

The third speaker of the session was Lakshmi Panat, MoSQuIT. She first talked about the objectives of the project, to track and monitor the status of malaria in a community and taking the appropriate prevention measures. There is a thrust of malaria, both at the global level as well as the national level. There is asha worker of healthcare services who collects data and the transfer of data takes place from village to a primary health care centre through a sub centre and later to a district. The collection of data about 15 -30 hours but analysis takes about 1-2 years. They give incentive to the workers on per record basis. The data is transferred into a mobile phone and later transferred to a server. They will expand very soon to the other areas as well.

The fourth speaker was Jaydeep Gupta from Friends2support.Org. He began by sharing a real life experience where he witnessed the death of a friend’s father due to lack of blood resource. He started off by keeping a register for people who want to donate blood and the number went up to 1 lakh. Then he came up with the idea of the app. As blood cannot be manufactured in a laboratory, it has to come from the living people. An effort is needed to encourage the youth towards donating blood. We can’t force anyone to donate blood; therefore we need willing donors who can save someone’s life. Friends2support actually encourages the people to donate as well as keeps a volunteer list, so that people can find someone who would donate in the time of need. Every user has a user profile that others can access, so that they know who all can donate and who all can’t. They use the help of social media sites and newspapers as well as the news to find people who are willing to donate.

The fifth speaker Matt Theis from Commcare, explained that some doctors from Howard and some engineers from MIT came together about 10 years ago and started the organisation called Dimagi. The product that Matt talked about is called CommCare and it is targeted towards community health workers. Community health workers will make the health of the community better and thus it will lead to better health outcomes. The app works with an android phone or a java based phone. They gather information of people and all the information is organised into a case hierarchy similar to the ones we see in a hospital. They provide an open source for other people to develop apps for them as well, they help people do that. They are working with Howard business school and University of Washington to do a study on non-financial incentives of motivation.

The sixth speaker Siddharth Rao,stated that ‘Health wellness and fitness’ service deals with one of the major agenda that is health care. We are aware that the number of diseases that are increasing day by day causes a threat to our lives. This product is an easy way to communicate between patient and the doctor. This product provides consultation and a service to the people.it is a one stop shop for content, constitution and services. We can very easily ask any question about our health and fitness. We can get our blood reports on this product.one of the key feature of this product is its browser based chat so that any user can access this portal and get the real time of the doctors. Currently they provide consultation and they are trying and expanding their services. All in all it is like a walking hospital for the benefit of all.

The seventh speaker was Shyam Tandon from Sevamob. He explained that it provides insulin’s to low income consumers.The service is provided by pathologists and field workers. Limited access to primary healthcare and less awareness among the poor are the key reasons they started sevamob.  They give door to door service. They are the only foundation that gives healthcare facilities to low income consumers. There is a call free number that’s open 24/7 and they appoint specialists. The best feature is that its available on android and it has a web based portal for level 2 experts. The application takes all your records in consideration so that they can treat u better. They have the facility of cash back from the path labs.

Summary
The chairperson saluted the participants. He was highly impressed with all the innovations and the variety of topics. He talked about what the jury will take under consideration to choose a winner. One of the things was that is it relevant to mobile health and secondly was the aspect of design value like was it easy to use. According to him user understanding was a must. He suggested that the first look comes from the presentation so it should be well written