The Hindu : Front Page : SMS alert on vaccination schedule

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009
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SMS alert on vaccination schedule

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation will send text messages (SMS) to women who have registered with its healthcare facilities, informing them of the vaccination schedule for their babies.

This is part of the e-governance initiative of the disease tracking system to be installed at health posts and dispensaries of the civic body. “The development of the software has been completed. The hardware will be procured shortly,” Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said. The disease tracking system would be the first such initiative by a Municipal Corporation in the country, said Mr.Lakhoni.

“The response time of the Corporation to epidemics will reduce considerably after the installation of the system,” he said. Around 74 dispensaries and 93 health posts of the civic body will be linked through the online system in two months. A pilot project was launched at the Perumalpet health post recently. More than 1.7 lakh individuals will benefit under the SMS scheme, Mr.Lakhoni said. Messages for those without mobile phone would be sent to mobile phones of health workers of the civic body.

Unique ID number

Women giving birth in Corporation hospitals will be given a unique identification number as part of the new disease tracking system. Personal details of the patient, including phone number and address, would be collected during registration.

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