Health Minister launches IT-enabled tool to help quit tobacco

New Delhi The Centre today launched four ITbased health care initiatives including an audiobased mobile service which will deliver weekly messages to families about pregnancy and child birth an ITenabled tool to help quit tobacco and a dedicated helpline for TB patientsSpeaking at the launch of the AIIMS OPD Transformation Project which aims at using Information Technology to ease access to services at AIIMS Union Health Minister J P Nadda said the audio mobile services would benefit two crore pregnant women and an equal number of infantsAnnouncing the first of the four initiatives Kilkari to mark the birth anniversary of Madam Mohan Malaviya and birthday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Nadda said it is an audiobased mobile service that delivers weekly audio messages and is being supported by Tata Consultancy Services as part of its CSR initiativeEach pregnant woman and infants mother registered in the Mother and Child Tracking System MCTS a webenabled namebased system to monitor and ensure delivery of full spectrum of services to all pregnant women and children would receive weekly voice messages relevant to the stage of pregnancy or age of the infantThe 72 messages would reach the targeted beneficiaries from the 4th month of pregnancy until the child is one year old On an average the duration of each message is two minutes Such messages will empower and educate women and parents to help create a better environment in maternal and child health Nadda saidHe said the service will be provided free of cost to the beneficiaries and in the first phase of implementation such messages would be sent to the pregnant women and infants mothers in Jharkhand Odisha Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan He said the messages are being developed in Hindi Odiya and English in the first phase It will be later expanded to other languagesNadda said the other initiative MCessation will be an ITenabled tool to help tobacco users to quit tobacco Stating that it is built on a helpline concept Nadda said it will register beneficiaries on the basis of a missed call and counselling would be done through a twoway SMS processThe Union Health Minister also said a new mobilebased application Mobile Academy has been developed through which about 9000000 Accredited Social Health Activists ASHAs will be imparted trainingNadda along with Union Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated the new ITenabled OPD registry block at AIIMS Nadda said This Mobile Academy will aid in enhancing their interpersonal skills Once registered ASHAs can access the 240minute course via their mobile phones They can then complete the standardized course at their convenienceDigital bookmarking technology enables ASHAs to complete the course at their own pace The course is divided into 11 chapters each containing four lessons There is a quiz at the end of each chapter he said He said ASHAs successfully completing the course by securing more than minimum prescribed marks will receive a certificate of completion from the governmentStressing on making the Revised National TB Control Programme RNTCP more patientcentric Nadda said a dedicated toll free number 1800116666 attached with a call centre is being started by the Ministry to provide roundtheclock support for patient counselling and treatment support servicesThis call centre will have trained personnel who will provide feedback to patients and also link or refer chest symptomatic persons to RNTCP services Under this initiative callers can give a missed call or call to get complete support for diagnosis treatment and support for the completion of treatment on the national toll free number the minister saidHe said this particular initiative is being started in Punjab Haryana Chandigarh and Delhi