ReMiND – Reducing Maternal & Newborn Deaths Pilot Project

Lessons from India on Mobile Content Development

mHealth Working Group

“Deep Dive” on Development of Mobile Content for Clients

26 April 2013

Why Mobile Content?

• Place & Time

– CommCare Beta Test

• Who has phones?

– All households, but

kept by the man

• Low literacy

• Decision

– Multi-media content (image & audio) on basic feature

phones operating CommCare-based job aids for ASHA.

Process & Timeline

• Pregnancy Application (17 months)– Initial iteration of definition & app (March – May 2011)

– Introduced to 10 pilot ASHA from May 2011

– Multiple minor revisions of app (June – Dec 2011)

– Major app revision and field testing (April – July 2012)

– Scaled-up to 111 ASHA from August 2012

– Revision targeting low-literate ASHA (Jan – March 2013)

– Scaling to another 155 ASHA by May 2013 (in progress)

• Postpartum Application (11 months)– Develop definition for postpartum, infant and referral modules

(Sept – Oct 2012)

– Application build (October 2012 – March 2013)

– Field Testing with 14 pilot ASHA (March – July 2013)

Modifying Content

• Shifting from close-ended to

open-ended questions

• Splitting checklist and

counseling into separate tools

• User-driven counseling with

strategic logic

• Adapting for low-literate

ASHA

• Planning ahead for the “wantedness of girls”

Lessons & Recommendations

• Test, test, test—then scale.

• It takes a team.

• Need to know or nice to know?

• Share and learn. Learn and Share

Thank you

Contact for further info: marianna.hensley@crs.org