The successful delivery of Public Health Services requires field staff to have access to flexible and easyto-use tools for communication and coordination in order to respond to the critical needs of the communities they serve. Globally, current health systems are burdened with limited resources and inadequate information exchange. In order to address this gap, Voxiva, an innovative ICT solutions company, has developed a range of flexible solutions.
Voxiva provides telephone and Internet based information solutions to the public and private sector agencies serving public health, public safety, e-Governance and development related project needs. Programmes in places as diverse as Peru, Rwanda, Iraq and India are using Voxiva-powered applications to collect and analyse data, conduct real-time surveillance, track critical supplies, respond to the information available, hence, monitor and evaluate programmes thoroughly. Voxiva has also worked with some US governing agencies creating applications that enable patient monitoring, critical supply tracking and disease surveillance.
The use of ICT for health care in industrialised countries has had a profound effect. With their capacity to rapidly collect, compile and disseminate information, with sophisticated tools for data analysis, field workers can easily obtain updated technical or consultation information regarding prevention and treatment of disease/health conditions and programme managers have real time information for local management, strategic resource allocation and evidence-based decision making.
Significant evidence exists that ICT can offer tremendous benefits for programmes in countries at all stages of economic development and since its inception, Voxiva has been guided by the philosophy that lack of access to advanced technology, should not stop countries from strengthening their information and communication systems to improve health services. Voxiva has established itself as an innovative leader and designer of IT-based solutions to address some of the challenges of supporting public health programmes in less developed and limited resourced settings.
Whether health programs have access to a single Internet-connected computer, a mobile phone or technology that is as rudimentary as a village pay phone, Voxiva builds a dynamic, hosted information solution that enhances the delivery of health services leveraging the technology that exists.
The technology solutions allow for improved communication among health workers, medical experts and program officials. Not only can health workers in the field report and retrieve vital information, but program managers can easily communicate and disseminate information to workers, as well as have access to real time data, with analytical tools for effective response and management of their programs.
Voxiva's system "represents a profoundly different approach to the so-called digital divide. Rather than connecting poor, far-flung regions through expensive computers and the Internet, it harnesses the technology already in place"
NacerInformation solution to support maternal and child health programmes in Peru  Ucayali is a region that lies south of Lima and deep in the Amazon basin. Many of the indigenous populations live in villages that are hundreds of miles from Ucayali's only major road. And the thick Amazon rainforests make it impossible to reach these remote areas via motorised land vehicles. Most travel to these areas is by river transport, and it can take two to seven days to reach desired destinations.High quality maternal and neonatal care is essential forreducing maternal and infant mortality rates in Ucayali, where the 185 per 100,000 maternal death rate was much higher than the national average rate of 146 per 100,000; as was the 52 per 1,000 infant death rate to the national average of 34 per 1,000. Through a USAID-funded Pathfinder International program, Voxiva worked with the Regional Health Directorate of Ucayali and the Peru Ministry of Health to develop Nacer, an electronic maternal and child health solution that addresses Ucayali's myriad challenges. Nacer facilitates rapid, real-time communication among remote health posts, medical experts and regional hospitals. What is Nacer?Nacer is phone- and web-based information and communication system that allows health professionals in remote locations to submit and receive information. All reported information enters a central database and is available in near real-time to health officials. Health workers in locations without Internet connectivity can tap into the system using any phone (satellite, fixed-line, mobile, community pay phone). Information reported by system users supports decision-making and allows health officials to monitor maternal health as well as programme performance.Nacer supports programmatic efforts to improve maternal and neonatal health by providing a means for remote health personnel to receive appropriate guidance and support from medical experts. The patient monitoring module provides a health service safety net. Should health personnel report symptoms that are indicative of a serious, underlying health condition in a pregnant woman, regional health workers can review her records and send voicemail messages and other support to ensure the woman is receiving appropriate care. Nacer's disease surveillance and natural disaster reporting modules as well as rapid communication mechanism enables health programs to improve health delivery to entire communities. |
Further, health workers can spend more time on provision of quality services to the communities they serve because the solutions eliminate or significantly reduce the need for paper-based data collection, enabling health workers and managers to spend less time on routine administrative tasks.
Voxiva's technology combines the functionality of traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems, unified messaging and voicemail services, and web-based transaction and workflow management tools. The Voxiva platform also has the capacity to interface with third-party databases and existing applications. It consists of the following core capabilities that can be configured to meet specific program needs:- Phone and web-based data collection
- Role-based access
- Adverse event detection and alerts
- Statistical reporting and analysis
- Geospatial mapping
In the light of the devastating tsunami, Voxiva India is also jointly doing a HealthWatch project with Ministry of Health of Tamil Nadu. It is working to help the government of Tamil Nadu to support their response to disease outbreaks and provide an easy mechanism to track and prevent disease cases in the tsunami affected districts. The system integrates surveillance carried out by field health workers with the efforts of district health authorities for rapid and coordinated response.
Through experience in the developing world, Voxiva has quickly brought to bear some of its key lessons learned to its solution design: (i) that programmes benefit most when locally appropriate interventions that leverage existing ICT infrastructure are developed and (ii) the solution must facilitate regular communication and information flow among dispersed networks of people, based on what is available today.
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