Med Supply Made Easy
One of the many problems health workers like ASHA, ANM, nurses and doctors in rural India face is irregular supplies of essential medicines and other supplies.
Apparently, the problem is not intentionally caused by health workers or medicine suppliers. Rather, people associated with supply chain management do not have precise and actionable information on the requirement, amount, time of supplies.
Therefore, this proof-of-concept project intends to verify if information regarding current stock status, estimated demand and order information can be made available through SMS among the stakeholders, this problem could significantly be alleviated.
If this idea proves to be effective, we will disseminate the results and scale-up the project.
About You
About You
First Name
ICT
Last Name
Health
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Innovadors Lab
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+91-9776431902
Organization Address
KIIT School of Biotechnology, Patia, Bhubaneswar, Orissa
Organization Country
India, OR
Country where this project is creating social impact
India, OR
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Innovation
Entry Form title
Med Supply Made Easy
What change do you want to bring to the world?
One of the many problems health workers like ASHA, ANM, nurses and doctors in rural India face is irregular supplies of essential medicines and other supplies.
Apparently, the problem is not intentionally caused by health workers or medicine suppliers. Rather, people associated with supply chain management do not have precise and actionable information on the requirement, amount, time of supplies.
Therefore, this proof-of-concept project intends to verify if information regarding current stock status, estimated demand and order information can be made available through SMS among the stakeholders, this problem could significantly be alleviated.
If this idea proves to be effective, we will disseminate the results and scale-up the project.
What are the primary activities of your project?
1. Background:
This idea will be tested in a rural community in Orissa, which has one of the lowest health achievements in India and the world. National Rural Health Mission is a pan-India rural health delivery program which provides services in reproductive, maternal, neo-natal, child health, malaria, filaria, blindness and TB. In a cluster of 2 villages with a total of 5000 people, there is one Sub-Health Centre (SHC) and in a cluster of 6 villages (30,000 people) there is one Primary Health Centre (PHC). Details are available here: http://mohfw.nic.in/WriteReadData/l892s/file35-33319850.pdf.
2. Problem
NRHM has provided with essential drugs and supplies list for SHC, PHC and each health workers. However, facilities and health workers do not have an effective mechanism to report stock status and order fresh stocks. Supply store manager (in district headquarter) also does not react to demands effectively. An effective supply management means i) fast and reliable check of stock status, b) fast order for replenishment and c) store manager who acts upon requests. Traditional paper based system can not solve this problem.
3. Solution approach (activities):
i) Mapping the supply requirements: Since in a given community, number of eligible beneficiaries registered under NRHM is finite and predictable, it is also feasible to predict the stock requirement in SHCs and PHCs, in each category of supplies. There could be additional 10% stocks as safeguard. This analysis of requirements could be done using three databases - a) Register of patients maintained at facilities and health workers, b) NRHM-HMIS database - http://nrhm-mis.nic.in which keeps data at SHC and PHC levels and c) community survey.
ii) SMS: We will then develop an SMS system to allow health workers report stock status in all supply categories and place requisition for fresh stocks. The SMS will be done using a small set of English keywords which will be written in a printed and illustrated pocket guide that will be distributed to all concerned people. The SMS method will be implemented using a commercial SMS gateway and short codes and strings will be developed.
iii) Store manager: We will present this data to the district store manager and other stakeholders - Block Health Manager, CMO, among others. We will also send periodic updates (monthly) on stock requirements. Store manager will receive the SMS from health workers and will act upon those requests. If he does not act upon within 3 days, a subsequent alert will be sent to Chief Medical Officer for him to follow up.
iv) Training: Training in SMS reporting will be provided to health workers, store managers and others involved in supply chain management.
v) Community involvement: Despite this intervention, there is a need for the beneficiary to be able to report stock out status. Using the SMS gateway or direct call, they can register complaints. We intend to publicise this intervention and provision of complaints through wall painting. We would also like to distribute a printed list of essential medicines that should be available with the health workers and facilities among the entire population in the project site.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
1. Compared to traditional system: There are significant improvements over the traditional systems, in areas of a) near accurate prediction of stock requirements, b) (almost) real time communication of current stock status, c) faster order for fresh stock, d) ability to act upon precise and actionable information for stock manager and health workers, e) supervisors can check and follow up on supplies and f) community can monitor and complaint on non-availability of essential medicines.
2. Compared to other mHealth: Population Service International (PSI-India, Rajasthan) implemented SMS reporting of condom sales and stock status by their sales persons. However, sales persons in private sector are motivated by their incentives. In public sector, motivation does not come automatically, unless there is a proper system to hold one accountable. Therefore, the real innovation is in business process, rather than introduction of the SMS technology.
3. Involvement of community: To our knowledge, there is another initiative called Stop Stock Out (http://stopstockouts.org) in Africa. This works in campaign mode in which community members and NGO workers randomly check medicine availability in stores and report in a web-based forms. In the proposed method, community members can lodge complaints which will directly be sent to the concerned officials.
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
We intend to implement this idea in a rural and tribal community where mobile network is available. The project site will be one of the KbK districts. The members of tribal community are mostly (95%) live in below poverty line and depend upon agriculture, forest, handicrafts for livelihoods.
We are strongly connected through community based organizations (CBOs) and health officers in number of locales in the proposed districts. In the past, we have undertaken several field studies involving health workers in this area and we saw interest among health workers and communities.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Founder:
The founder has undertaken major research projects in the area of using mobile communication for improving rural health delivery and uptake. He pointed out structural limitations and barriers in the traditional methods of health delivery and promotion, especially in developing countries. He provided with evidence how these barriers can be significantly reduced with the appropriate usage of information and communication technologies. He studied information management and e-Governance from EPFL. He intends to demonstrate this idea for all the stakeholders for further scaling up across societies.
Co-founder:
He received Master of Technology in Computer Science with specialization Software Project Management (SPM) from Utkal University (Bhubaneswar, India). He received post graduate degree in business administration with dual specialization of Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human resources (HR) from Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (Kharagpur, India). He received specialized education in ERP from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (Ahmedabad, India).
He has been working as a freelancer for software design development and deployment in various domains such as education, health care and security for 5 years (2003-2008) and started software development research and Consultancy Company as a proprietor during 2008-2009. This company was registered as private limited company in 2010.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
We intend to use both qualitative and qualitative indicators in measuring the success of the proposed intervention. This will be done through a pre-post study. The key indicators will be:
Process improvements:
1. Improvement in time taken by the health worker send (only sending) a requisition for fresh stock;
2. Improvement in time taken in reaching (that is, send time, processing by intermediaries and final reach) the requisition to store manager;
3. Improvement in quality of processing (reading requisition, placing the order and actual supply of stock) of requisition by store manager;
4. Improvement in preparedness in stock management as a consequence of accurate estimation of stock requirements;
5. Improvement in capacity of health workers in managing their stocks;
6. Improvement in ability of beneficiaries in lodging complaints;
7. Improvement in awareness and knowledge among community in their entitlements about medicines and supplies;
Outcome improvements:
6. Improvements in actual stock status across supplies categories;
7. Improvements in community knowledge about their access to medicines;
8. Improvement among health workers in managing stock more efficiently, with lesser effort
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001- 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
We intend to implement this idea as a proof of concept for demonstrating the efficacy of the idea.
Task 1
We will select the project site and partner with concerned stakeholders. We will then undertake a formative research to identify gaps and limitations.
Task 2
We will develop the tools and messages in a week and field test it for another week. We will then deploy the tools through training, community advocacy.
Task 3
At the sixth month, we will undertake an evaluation of the intervention.
Identify your 12-month impact milestone
We intend to raise additional fund to scale-up the intervention in few more blocks (20 villages) and integrate with other provider-centric components.
Task 1
Develop and integrate IT infrastructure and tools to facilitate demand forecasting (of medicines) in additional project sites.
Task 2
Provide capacity building support to supply chain managers, health workers and communities in using the system.
Task 3
Fund raising for undertaking further R&D for improving system efficiency and reach.
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
1. We intend to integrate this component with other mHealth components. The integration can happen at the end of first year.
2. In the second year, we intend to implement the integrated model in a district, while continuing further R&D.
3. In the third year, we intend to further scale up and collaborate with other innovators who are developing advanced devices.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
We have found numerous SMS-based projects were undertaken and successfully carried out in various resource poor settings. We do not anticipate any programmatic, technological and cultural barriers in implementing this idea.
Tell us about your partnerships
1. We will partner with the Department of Health and Family Welfare and National Rural Health Mission of Government of Orissa. They are primarily responsible for providing maternal and child health across rural Orissa.
2. We intend to partner with local village administration (panchayat) and community based organizations (CBOs) like self-help groups.
3. We intend to bring in a senior medicine supply specialist in Government of India as adviser to the project.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
Less than $1,000
Explain your selections
We as proprietors of an IT company have conceptualized this project.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Once we are able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the project in improving performance among health workforce, we will continue to add new methods and technologies in the work-flow. We are confident that this demonstration with help local and national governments to decide to support us in continuing with innovation and implementing projects in other states and scaling up the current project.
Challenges
Which barriers to health and well-being does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Limited access to preventative tools or resources
SECONDARY
Lack of access to targeted health information and education
TERTIARY
Other (Specify Below)
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
1. Limited access to preventive tools and resources: Non-availability of medicines can deter health workers provide services to patients. The proposed intervention is aimed at ensuring that medicine supply will be based on evidence(i.e. based on demand forecasting), precise (what medicine, which quantity and where to supply) and actionable (x health worker asks y store manager) information.
2. Lack of access to targeted health information and education: In traditional method, health worker does not have any control on time, access and process of the requisition. In the proposed method, health worker and store manager can exchange information on supplies.
3. Similarly, community becomes more knowledgeable about what medicines are supposed to be available in local facilities.
How are you growing the impact of your organization or initiative?
Please select up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
We intend to raise additional fund for scaling-up this proposed model.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
1. We will collaborate with the government - National Rural Health Mission, Orissa (www.nrhmorissa.gov.in). The project will be carried out upon NRHM project site, protocols and HNWs. By collaborating with them, we shall also provide them with the results for the need to scale up the project.
2. We intend to collaborate with a leading medical science education and research institute in India. This institute is already providing MBBS and MD degrees, with approval from Medical Council of India (MCI). Their expertise is required to vet the health related content, alerts, ethics clearance etc.
3. We will collaborate with the panchayats of the project site.
4. We will also collaborate with local community based organization (CBO) to identify and facilitate beneficiary registration.
 | 35 weeks agoICT Health updated this Competition Entry. |
| 35 weeks agoICT Health submitted this idea. |
