Strengthening Health Systems: A health information needs assessment in Uttar Pradesh, India

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, continues to face the challenge of reducing its maternal and infant mortality rates. Health services are provided to its rural areas through a public health system that employs a large number of health care workers at the village, block, district, and state levels. India has recently experienced exponential growth in its telecommunications industry, which now connects its rural areas with each other and with urban areas. The availability of emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) provides hope of providing crucial health information resources to a vast rural network of health care workers. It is important to assess health information needs and to understand the process of information flow within the health system in Uttar Pradesh.

The barriers to accessing and sharing information within the health system need to be identified. Mapping detailed information needs can feed into the design of needs-based knowledge management systems that can substantially improve reproductive, maternal, and child health indicators. Knowledge for Health (K4Health) is implemented by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in partnership with Family Health International (FHI), and Management Sciences for Health (MSH), with funding from USAID.