A New Digitalisation Effort in Bangladesh Could Change Community Health Globally

Data Entry by Specially Trained Community Health Worker in Bangladesh. Credit: Abdullah Al KafiBy Morseda ChowdhuryDHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct 31 2022 (IPS) The digital transformation of thousands of community health workers in Bangladesh has dramatically enhanced their work, while enabling the creation and tracking of a healthcare database covering 64 million people. The resulting model holds remarkable promise for the health of the world, especially in the context of evolving pandemics. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, BRAC digitalised the work of our 4,100 shasthya kormi, specially trained community health workers, in Bangladesh. Shasthya kormi are women experienced in health education, antenatal and postnatal checkups, non-communicable disease prevention, reproductive health and nutrition. The digital transformation of their work created benefits on a remarkable number of levels, underscored the vast potential for further scaling, and yielded insights directly relevant to increasing the quality of healthcare globally. Each shasthya kormi was given an Android tablet and trained in its use. That enabled immediate time saving in myriad ways: faster and more accurate record-keeping; reports conveyed online rather than in person; training conducted online and at convenient times rather than only at designated times in person; and related administrative travel and costs avoided. The time saved can exceed a full day every two weeks. The digital devices also enabled us to save approximate...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Asia-Pacific COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Featured Global Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news