Integrating Health Care Delivery and Data Collection in Rural India Using a Rapidly Deployable eHealth Center

Abstract

The Challenge Inequity in health care access is a major cause of increasing disease burden, catastrophic medical expenses, and inability to escape poverty, especially in the developing world [1]–[6]. Government programs to effect disease surveillance and treatment do exist, such as for tuberculosis, yet proper implementation is often lacking, especially in rural regions [1],[5]–[7]. The foremost limitation is a real shortage of health care providers coupled with inequitable concentration of resources, of both manpower and infrastructure. This limitation is amplified by an inability to monitor the use of the few resources that are available, diversion of funds earmarked for health infrastructure creation, and provider absenteeism. The general lack of objective health data makes informed or targeted disease prevention difficult, especially in the context of limited resources [8].