Assessing the Impact of Mobile Phone Technology to Improve Health Nutrition and Population (HNP) Service Utilization in Rural Bangladesh Through Pilot Intervention

1. Burden: In global perspective, it is estimated that the lives of 150,000 women could be saved each year worldwide with access to sufficient family planning services. It is indicated that only 26 percent women received four or more antenatal care (ANC) visits during their pregnancies, while 67.7 percent received at least one ANC during their pregnancies which are the great challenges for ensuring safe motherhood in the country. As a part of safe motherhood, it is estimated that only 28.8 percent deliveries are being conducted in health facilities in the country. In case of postnatal care (PNC), from 2008 to 2010, only 27 percent of women received PNC for their last deliveries from a medically-trained provider within two days of their delivery. Despite the tremendous success of expanded programme on immunization (EPI) in Bangladesh, a substantial number of children are not fully vaccinated under EPI as data shows 82 percent were fully vaccinated by the age of 12 months. 2. Knowledge gap: Use of technology for covering all or major components of primary health care (PHC) is yet to be developed and tested in Bangladesh. Further, no such initiative has yet been taken focusing community clinic (CC) to ensure equity of services in Bangladesh. 3. Relevance: At present in Bangladesh, the CCs cater the services on family planning, maternal neonatal and child health (MNCH), health education for the rural people by using e-health strategy as the community health care provider (CHCP), newly recruited staff of community clinic are equipped with internet connected laptop service. So, updated technology for updating information, follow up and referral in primary health care can be used to increase the utilization of health services. Hypothesis (if any): Use of smart phones by community level healthcare providers will increase utilization of reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP), MNCH, integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI), EPI and other PHC ser