Supporting rural healthcare in India with technology

Overview

We are joined in this episode by Ruchit Nagar, the CEO and Co-Founder of Khushi Baby. For his efforts to deliver scalable public health impact, Ruchit has been recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 leader in Health Care, a World Innovation Summit in Health Young Innovator, and a Distinguished Young Alumnus by by the Yale School of Public Health

This episode covers into the role of India's Community health workers, or Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). We hear from Ruchit's experience implementing with Khushi baby the challenges of integrating technology to support health workers.

Ruchit also gives us a lowdown on India's digital public health approach and shares his key learnings and insights for people looking to implement tech in rural areas.

We get into the challenges in policy, the data infrastructure layer and the importance of funding for sustainable health initiatives. Ruchit also emphasizes the need for better support and resources for ASHAs, the impact of technology on healthcare delivery, and the necessity of aligning incentives to improve health outcomes.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:53 Khushi baby origins

05:10 Challenges in Community Health Delivery

07:18 The Role of ASHAs in Healthcare

12:28 The Need for Integrated Solutions

14:14 India public health digital ecosystem 101

19:51 When "too much digital" gets in the way of good care

22:28 Pitfalls in funding and investment approaches

23:20 The 3 I's that drive implementation success

31:56 Leveraging Data for Health System Strengthening

35:53 Challenges in Health System Integration

41:35 Measuring Impact and Effectiveness

47:44 Aligning Incentives with Ground Realities

53:56 Navigating Quality, Evaluation and Regulatory Challenges

56:48 Future Directions for Khushi Baby

01:02:02 Ruchit's top takeaway for developers

References

Khushi baby website

Book reference: Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
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