In response to the absence of a reliable digital tool that empowers mothers and parents with evidence-based methods of healthcare, the BarevBalik (Hello, Child!) platform (website and mobile app) was developed in cooperation with the Republic of Armenia's Ministry of Health. It is a "one-stop-shop" for maternal and child healthcare that provides access to health information, information on public health services, digital tools, and a digitalized health service.
Innovation Summary
Innovation Overview
In Armenia, maternal and child mortality ratios are higher than the European average. This presumes that the quality of healthcare services in this sector requires improvement. Since quality healthcare is dependent on both patients and practitioners, one of the biggest contributing factors to this reality is the low level of awareness among pregnant women and parents, who often fail to acknowledge health problems, raise them with the right institution and practitioner, and refrain from over-intervening or using non-evidence-based methods to treat conditions and illnesses at home. The situation is exacerbated by the distrust towards the healthcare system and its employees, leading to worsened health outcomes for young children and pregnant women.
In this context, the SDG Innovation Lab with the support of the Ministry of Health conducted several co-designing sessions to identify the latent needs of the citizens in this regard. The team ideated and implemented a digital platform that is reliable and provides evidence-based tools, services, and information.
The objectives of this initative are:
1) Catalyze modernization of the maternal and child healthcare system in Armenia
2) Make personalized health information accessible to patients
3) Empower citizens with evidence-based information and access to their benefits and eligibilities
4) Lay the foundation for evidence based policymaking in the maternal and child healthcare system in Armenia
Based on the user's requirements, several digital health tools such as ovulation tracker, sleep tracker, breastfeeding tracker, contractions counter, and financial eligibility checker are incorporated into the platform. One service, children's vaccination tracker, has been selected along with users for digitalization and piloting. This also facilitates coordination and management between primary healthcare institutions and parents of children through sending push notifications as reminders for children's vaccination date.
BarevBalik platform provides health information on the most common health conditions and diseases in reproductive, prenatal and pediatric health. It also entails a map of "services near me", where users can identify the closest hospitals and health institutions by selecting a health service. Also, they can download reports on the health data they have inputted to communicate with their physicians.
The platform will be handed over to the Ministry of Health for maintenance and future development and expansion. And currently, a second phase of digitalization and expansion is being ideated.
Innovation Description
What Makes Your Project Innovative?
BarevBalik platform is innovative because:
1) For the first time in Armenia it unified health information, tools, and services under one platform
2) It is developed using Design Thinking methodology
3) It has accessibility tools for people with impaired vision and short attention span
4) It has data interoperability to authenticate parent-child relationship to benefit from the digitalized vaccination record of children
5) It has integrated Mobile ID technology in the platform for strong authentication
6) It provides access to personalized health information of children for the first time in Armenia
7) It incorporates first ever health tracking tools in Armenian
What is the current status of your innovation?
BarevBalik maternal and child health platform has been launched in June 2022. As of today, the platform has over 2200 registered users and over 20,000 website visitors. Digitalized vaccination record acquisition is currently being tested in the testing environment. It is provisioned to test the service full-scale in the production environment in October 2022.
Currently, handover of the platform to the Ministry of Health is being organized and the second phase, which entails expansion of digitalized services, is being ideated and fundraised. The second phase mainly focuses on creating a cooperation model between primary healthcare institutions and primary education institutions to identify health conditions in children early on and enable early intervention for better health outcomes. In addition, digitalization of school entrance health screening for children is being explored.
Innovation Development
Collaborations & Partnerships
Government officials have taken ownership of the innovation and have also included it in their list of priority activities for 2020-2025. They have also provided support in creating an e-health partnership and have facilitated digitalization.
Viva-MTS provided the opportunity to integrate Mobile ID technology into the platform.
Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries
The government modernized the maternal and child healthcare system. Now, it has a digitalized health service that is most demanded by parents of children up to age six. Citizens are empowered with health information, tools and service.
Innovation Reflections
Results, Outcomes & Impacts
BarevBalik platform has over 20,000 website visitors and around 500 application downloads. The overall number of registered users are around 2,200.
Challenges and Failures
In the context of health service digitalization, there were a range of challenges that were faced:
1) Inaccuracy and inconsistency of databases and data in providing personalized health services.
2) Ensuring data privacy and data protection, which was resolved by the interoperability of state databases and a strong authentication system.
Conditions for Success
- For sustainability purposes, it is extremely important for the relevant governmental body or institution that is ready to allocate budget to have an ownership of the innovation.
- Design thinking methodology has proven useful in developing a digital platform that serves the needs of both the citizens and policymakers.
- Covid-19 has contributed to the ease of access to digital tools and it generated a wider support for the developed platform.
- A dedicated team and in-house capacity who dares to innovate despite all the risks and challenges.
Replication
The innovation can be replicated in any country by tailoring it to the healthcare system and public service modernization needs of the country.
Interoperability of databases and developing a unified platform for every life event, such as pregnancy, birth of a child, etc. can be replicated by other ministries for the purposes of breaking silos and working in a coordinated manner in providing public services to citizens. This is a governance method where citizens do not need to proactively apply for and follow up to receive services. Through their personal identifier, public agencies can identify the service needs of the citizen and proactively initiate the service delivery with less cost and time. This can be an opportunity for collaboration between Ministries of Education, Labor and Social Affairs, and Justice to deliver digitalized services to citizens.
Lessons Learned
It is important to coordinate government and public sector resources effectively to avoid duplication of resources that are spent towards the same goal. Systems mapping and stakeholder engagement management is extremely valuable to this end. High level ownership and support from leadership facilitates navigating through the challenges.
Citizens, in many cases, are aware of their problems and their explicit needs. Citizens' experience with the public institutions and public services are valuable in extracting insights that can fuel your innovation. Democratizing decision-making whenever the team is unsure about the path to follow is always a good option. Engage and involve potential users in the process of decision making, that way you will have a reliable ground for ruling out or resorting to options.
Supporting Videos
Status:
- Identifying or Discovering Problems or Opportunities - learning where and how an innovative response is needed
- Implementation - making the innovation happen
- Diffusing Lessons - using what was learnt to inform other projects and understanding how the innovation can be applied in other ways
Innovation provided by:
Date Published:
10 July 2023