Mitigating gaps in reproductive health reporting in outlier communities of Kerala, India—A mobile phone-based health information system

The goal of providing universal, equitable and affordable health care has a profound place in the national agenda of many developing countries. With an increasing percentage of populace in the developing countries now relying on mobile phone for managing the activities of their daily lives, there are great potentials in relying on this technology to monitor the health issues among the under-served population. This paper describes a mobile phone-based health information system, KHID that is developed to facilitate the reporting of reproductive health issues among the women living in outlier communities in the State of Kerala, India. The Information Communication and Technology solution aims to mitigate the gaps in symptom reporting and tracking, a major deficient that constraints the reach of health care to those living in the low-income low-resource communities in developing countries.

► The environmental and social context of the outlier communities constrain access to health care.
► KHID is a mobile phone based ICT intervention to track reproductive tract infections among women.
► The intervention can be scaled to include a larger range of health issues in outlier communities.
► The solution can be used for purposes such as tracking domestic violence and neonatal health.