Role of information technology (IT) in public health, India (problems & prospects): Role of information communication technology (ICT) in disease surveillance under Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has proven to be a strong public health tool. Keeping the future need of country and building National Disease Surveillance System, Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) was launched by Hon'ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare in November 2004. It is a decentralized, State based surveillance program in the country. It is intended to detect early warning signals of impending outbreaks and help initiate an effective response in a timely manner. One of the major components of the project is the - use of Information Technology for collection, collation, compilation, analysis and dissemination of data besides distance education and video conferencing. A network of 800 sites across India has been established through Satellite, Broadband and High end Video conferencing equipments. The network is managed by a team of data managers and data entry operators at all state surveillance units and district surveillance units respectively. The network was proven to be extremely useful to respond to the current influenza A H1N1 pandemic. It is proposed to extend the network to cover private sector and provide convergence with other National Health Programs.