SATELLIFE, working together with HealthNet Nepal and the Academy for Educational Development through the DOT-org initiative, has introduced handheld computing to health service providers in Nepal. Working with the Nepal Family Health Program (NFHP) and Nepal Technical Assistance Group (NTAG), community health workers are using handheld computers to conduct surveys. This project is supported by USAID and is being carried out in collaboration with the USAID mission in Nepal.
NTAG enumerators are using handheld computers and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers during their household surveys to measure the effectiveness of an annual Vitamin A distribution campaign. Since the surveys are administered in the local dialect (Nepali), the Palm OS units first had to be prepared to display the Devanagari font. The surveys then need to be created using a new forms application developed in Kathmandu specifically for this project. Surveyors see questions written in the local script, but the backend database will record the answers in English for the reporting and analysis.
NFHP representatives use the handhelds as they visit family planning clinics to assess compliance with facility and staffing standards. Unlike the NTAG surveys, the NFHP forms will be in English. NFHP staff are being trained to use commercially available form programming tools so that they can modify the existing forms, or create tools for future surveys.
HealthNet Nepal, which currently supports email networks and local on-line health and medical information reference access, is being trained to use the locally developed programming tools to create additional applications in Devanagari for the handhelds. One goal of the USAID-funded project is to build the capacity of HealthNet Nepal to train handheld users and provide support locally for the further use of this technology in health and other sectors.