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Health technology assessment
Original research
TeCHO+ program in Gujarat: a protocol for health technology assessment
  1. Somen Saha1,
  2. Priya Kotwani1,
  3. Apurvakumar Pandya1,
  4. Deepak Saxena1,
  5. Tapasvi Puwar1,
  6. Shrey Desai2,
  7. Prakash Vaghela3,
  8. Dashrath Patel4,
  9. Chintan Patel4,
  10. Devang Raval1,
  11. Jayanti Ravi4
  1. 1 Regional Resource Centre for Health Technology Assessment, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
  2. 2 SEWA Rural, Jhagadia, Gujarat, India
  3. 3 National Health Mission, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
  4. 4 Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Somen Saha, Health Technology Assessment, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar 382042, Gujarat, India; ssaha{at}iiphg.org

Abstract

The Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of Gujarat, is implementing a program named Technology for Community Health Operation or TeCHO+ addressing state’s priority health issues. This program envisages replacing the existing mother and child tracking system or e-Mamta application in the state. This program is based on ImTeCHO—Innovative Mobile Technology for Community Health Operations—which was piloted in Jhagadia, Bharuch district of Gujarat in 2013. The program showed improvements not only in terms of coverage of maternal and newborn care packages averting malnutrition but also was cost-effective. This paper details the protocol for health technology assessment to assess the impact of TeCHO+ program on data quality, improvement in service delivery coverage, reduction in morbidity and mortality as well as assess the cost-effectiveness. The study will be conducted in five districts of the state. A mixed-method approach will be adopted. Data will be validated in a phased manner over a period of 3 years along with an assessment of key outcome indicators. Additionally, key informant interviews will be conducted and cost data will be gathered to perform cost-effectiveness analysis. The study will inform policymakers about the impact of TeCHO+ program on quality, access and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services.

  • accessible
  • affordable
  • medical apps
  • mHealth

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2019-000363

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors SS has conceptualised and coordinated the study. PK has drafted the protocol, field-tested it and prepared the manuscript. AP aided in the manuscript writing and ensured that all the elements of the protocol were reflected in the manuscript. DS, TP and SD have reviewed the content of the protocol and edited the manuscript. DR has contributed to field testing of the protocol and reviewing the manuscript. JR has reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version.

    • Funding This work has been carried out through the Regional Resource Centre for Health Technology Assessment established at Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar with support from the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval The ethics approval for the study has been obtained by the Institutional Ethics Committee on 19 March 2019.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. This is a protocol for health technology assessment study.