Community Health Workers (CHW) are a critical part of the health care system in many developing countries.  They provide health education and perform basic tasks such as maternal and child health screening.  These workers do not have formal medical training and carry out their job with very meager tools and paper-based records.

Our group has developed a variety of smart-phone-based tools that automatically digitize the readings, improve data quality, and also provide the health workers with increased confidence and increased credibility with families to perform better screening and referrals.  Much of our groups work has been devoted to anthropometry (baby height, weight, MUAC), but we have also developed some advanced tools for newborn screening and assessment to measure vital signs and detect health problems (e.g. sepsis, pneumonia).

Some of our early concepts and technologies are shown in the videos below.

In 2017-2018, the first generation of tools were field tested by a group of 10+ ASHA workers for several months in partnership with the Public Health Foundation of India, led by Dr. Suparna Gosh-Jerath.

Research Partner:  Public Health Foundation of India (Dr. Suparna Ghosh-Jerath)

Graduate Students: Xavier Soriano, Honey Bajaj