Information and communication technology for village female health volunteers in child growth monitoring program.

Problem

Posyandu is a child growth monitoring program conducted monthly in Indonesian villages for pregnant women and children under 5 years old. The motor of this program are village female health volunteers (cadres), whose tasks are to make sure people bring their children to Posyandu, weigh the children, and record all data to report to the public health center (Puskesmas). We aim to ease the task of Posyandu recording and reporting system by introducing the most recent and easier communication technology. Rather than completing a complicated reporting form and manually recap data every month, we aim to create a program where data input can be done directly in the field. This program should automatically conclude the state of each child and recap all data from one Posyandu.

Solution

We aim to empower the women involved in Posyandu with an appripriate communication technology to ease their task in recording, reporting and understanding child development monitoring. The digital application should enable easy interpretation of individual child’s growth trend and early detect unfavorable condition and provide mother with suggestions. This is an important part of Posyandu that often overlooked because of lack of continuity of child growth recording.Through the Internet, the digital report can be sent without them having to go to the health center or being visited by trained overburdened health care worker. Pooled online database will also be a reliable source for quick anticipation of corrective action as well as further research and development at village, district, and even at provincial level.

Example

In 2008 we developed a Posyandu online database model where data entered through a website with simple and user-friendly interface. We donated three computers equipped with a satellite phone to access Internet to the Posyandus where we did the pilot study. The female health volunteers were not eager to use a computer at first (some had never used any) but after getting used to, the application sped up Posyandu recording and they feel proud of being more tech savvy. Due to practical considerations along with the advancement of technology, we will develop the application on a smartphone. Compared to a computer, it is easier to keep (computers had to be kept at one of the volunteers’ house due to security reasons) and does not require an extra device because it can connect to the Internet through a GPRS network. We will also conduct training in information technology and Internet literacy for the women. We will design an application that is useful for monitoring each child individually as well as monitor the well-being of the whole village, subdistrict of even district. For evaluation of individual child the program should be able to plot a growth chart, compare development status to the standard according to age and recommend action to overcome discrepancies. Data would be centrally stored so that the regional health office can monitor which area has the biggest problem of malnutrition, developmental problems or low immunization coverage. This program can be expanded to other health programs delivered by the public health center like disease surveillance and control.

Marketplace

None that we know of so far.