India’s digital health programs increase infant vaccinations
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In India, the Khushi Baby program boosted infant vaccination rates by 12 percent.
The program began in 2014 to address preventable deaths among children under five, a problem caused by a lack of tracking for which children had received vaccinations. Khushi Baby created an application for healthcare workers to collect and monitor vaccination data, sending reminders to families about appointments in local dialects.
Initially, the program considered embedding electronic chips in traditional baby necklaces to store vaccination records, but abandoned the idea due to challenges with sourcing chips and providing smartphones to healthcare workers. Instead, Khushi Baby developed a common platform now used by 85,000 healthcare workers and covering the data of 60,000 patients in the Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Karnataka regions of India.
The platform expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic to help authorities identify patients with underlying health conditions and deliver targeted public services. The Observatoire de la e-santé dans les pays du sud (Odess) recognized Khushi Baby for its contributions to maternal and infant health.
