Significance of Vaccination for Pre-term Babies

Preterm babies are premature babies that are born before 37 completed weeks of gestation. There are sub-categories of preterm birth, based on gestational age:

• Extremely preterm (<28 weeks) 
• Very preterm (28 to <32 weeks) 
• Moderate to late preterm (32 to <37 weeks)

Source: Kevin Frayer / Associated Press

According to a WHO report, every year an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation), and this number is rising with every year. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for nearly 1 million deaths in 2013. There are various measures or guidelines illustrated by WHO on how to improve pre-term birth outcome; one of which is achieving full immunization against preventable childhood diseases. 

Points to keep in mind 

• All of these babies should be given routinely vaccinations. They should get all of the immunizations on the standard schedule as followed for term babies.
• Administering vaccinations are always safe whether given to term or pre-term and low birth weight babies. 

Why vaccination is so important? 

• Saves a Child’s Life – Timely vaccination ensures a child being protected from various diseases like Diphtheria, Hepatitis B, Measles, Meningitis, etc. Certain diseases like Polio, Smallpox have been eradicated with frequent and timely vaccination being administered.
• Protects not just your Child but the entire Community
• Saves Time and Money related to Healthcare Cost
• Protects Future Generations 

Keeping in mind, all of the above benefits it is very imperative that you as a Healthcare Provider, remind a parent to get their child timely vaccination. We understand that today with such heavy and hectic schedule it becomes difficult to remind each and every patient, but what if we say that technology is here for your rescue? 

What if you adopt a technology in such a way that it automatically reminds each and every parent of your practice in your name for timely vaccination of their child even in the cases of delayed vaccination? Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? If you want to know more on how can technology help you to be updated on your Child’s Health do contact us on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232 for further queries and we’ll be more than happy to help!

Rotavirus vaccine - now a part of country's immunization programme

Introduction to Rotavirus

Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis, an infection of the intestines and is one of the most common causes of diarrhea in children under the age of five. Studies have shown that nearly every child catches the infection before their fifth birthday. If infected, the baby may start to encounter the below symptoms in about 18 to 36 hours:

• Low grade fever
• Nausea and vomiting
• Mild to severe diarrhea, that usually lasts for three to seven days
• Abdominal cramps

Launch of Rotavirus Vaccine

The rotavirus vaccine has now been made a part of country’s universal immunization programme (UIP) for four states initially - Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha with expansion to entire country in phased manner. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the rotavirus vaccine as the only prevention and control measure for diarrhea. Most babies who get the vaccine won't get rotavirus diarrhea at all, and almost all of them will be protected from severe rotavirus diarrhea. 

On March 9th 2016, PM Narendra Modi launched India’s first indigenously developed Rotavirus vaccine “Rotavac”. With this launch, the vaccine is expected to bring down the infant deaths due to rotavirus diarrhea in India and across the globe. 

As every hospital’s immunization schedule differs in India, iCHR has the capability to adapt any immunization schedule according to the hospital’s requirement. If your hospital has captured rotavirus vaccine as a mandate vaccine, and is still not a part of your hospital information system (HIS); integrate iCHR in your hospital premises for better management of child health records. Contact us to know more on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232.

How will Implementing an Automated Child Health Record benefit my Hospital?

The Healthcare Industry has evolved rapidly in the past few years; adopting state-of-art infrastructure, robotics, information systems, IoT devices, etc. With such advancements, the next step for hospitals is to focus on adopting technology for each specialized departments like Maternity, Pediatrics, Cardiology, etc. and sharing the captured data with their patients so as to maintain a healthy doctor-patient relationship, providing credibility and retaining the patients for long-term. 

In Pediatrics today, the child health records in the hospitals are handed over to the parents as paper based records which are not formally maintained. Parents in most of the cases either misplace these records or do not carry them each time when visiting the doctor for administering the vaccination to the child. Hospitals do not maintain OPD record for vaccination and hence there is no way of recovering the vaccination history, leading to confusion and panic.

What can a Hospital do to minimize this?

Every hospital can adapt to a system that keeps track of a child’s vaccination schedule, which helps parents to get timely reminders and notifications of vaccinations, digitally plot growth charts including both Fenton & WHO chart so that it is easy for doctors to educate parents about their child’s growth and give instructions as and when needed.

With this in mind, we introduce everyone to iCHR - India’s 1st Hospital linked Integrated Child Health Record – a revolutionary concept of automated vaccination record and growth monitoring, for your precious child. iCHR is up and running currently in Fortis La Femme, Jaypee Hospital, Paras Hospital, Bhagat Chandra Hospital & Alchemist Hospital. Our goal with iCHR is to attain the sustainable development goals and reduce the child mortality rate. It helps in keeping track of all the vaccinations according to the schedule recommended by the Indian Association of Pediatrics. The application offers the following benefits:

Benefits for Doctors

• Cloud based patient management system.
• Maintaining the visit history of patients which saves record keeping and maintenance cost.
• Paperless and secured vaccination record available anytime, anywhere in the world. 
• Brand documentation of vaccine.
• Digital plotting of growth parameters on WHO and Fenton Charts.

Benefits for Parents

• Paperless and secured Vaccination Record available anytime, anywhere on your mobile phone.
• Interactive growth chart on parent’s mobile phone to track growth of preterm and term babies.
• Easy to understand.
• Each hospital visit details on tap of a button.
• Automatic vaccination due date calculator.
• Timely vaccination reminders and notifications for the parents.

Lastly through iCHR we are helping a hospital to enhance the retainer-ship with their patient through timely vaccination reminders, notifications for promotional and announcements by the hospital, which helps in engaging the patient not just within the hospital premises, but also outside the hospital. If this sounds interesting and you are still not on board, contact us to know more on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232 for further queries and we’ll be more than happy to help!

Current Vaccination Scenario in India

In India, an estimated 26 millions of children are born every year. As per WHO in 2015, 5.9 million children under age five and 696,000 neonatal deaths were recorded. Achieving full immunization against preventable childhood diseases is the right of every child, and to provide this right to every child, the Government of India launched the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) in 1985, one of the largest health programs of its kind in the world. According to a report, it is observed that though the program is being operational for over 30 years, only 65% children in the first year of their life have been able to achieve full immunization and the increase in coverage has stagnated in the past 5 years to an average of 1% every year. It has also been observed that every year in India, 5 lakh children die due to vaccine-preventable diseases. Another 89 lakh children remain at risk, because they are either unimmunized or partially immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases. (Source: Mission Indradhanush)

Various reasons have been identified on why the coverage has been slow such as:

• Lack of awareness on the need of immunization
• The vaccination and growth records handed over to the parents are paper based records which are not formally maintained. Parents in most of the cases either misplace these records or do not carry each time visiting the doctor for administering the vaccination to the child.
• Often the parents miss the vaccination schedule of their child due to the busy and hectic lifestyle, because of which the child suffers.
• Hospitals do not maintain OPD record for vaccination and hence there is no way of recovering the vaccination history.

What can be done to solve this issue?

Technology is joining hands with Healthcare rapidly, from HIS to EMRs/EHRs; the need of the hour is to now develop applications which will focus on specialized departments such as Maternity, Pediatric Department, etc. 

With this thought, would like to introduce iCHR - India’s 1st Hospital linked Integrated Child Health Record – a revolutionary concept of automated vaccination record and growth monitoring, for your precious child. Our goal with iCHR is to attain the sustainable development goals and reduce the child mortality rate. It helps in keeping track of all the vaccinations according to the schedule recommended by the IAP. The application offers the following benefits:

Benefits for Doctors

• Cloud based patient management system.
• Maintaining the visit history of child which saves record keeping and maintenance cost.
• Paperless and secured vaccination record available anytime, anywhere in the world.
• Brand documentation of vaccine.
• Digital plotting of growth parameters on WHO and Fenton Charts.

Benefits for Parents

• Paperless and secured Vaccination Record available anytime, anywhere on your mobile phone.
• Interactive growth chart on parent’s mobile phone to track growth of preterm and term babies.
• Easy to understand.
• Each hospital visit details on tap of a button.
• Automatic vaccination due date calculator.
• Timely vaccination reminders and notifications for the parents.

We at iCHR are profound & proficient in providing the platform at your doorstep starting from installation, training the end users, support and maintenance of the application. We make sure that you do not fall in traps & make the best of decisions for the hospital and the parents. If this sounds interesting and you are still not on board, contact us to know more on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232 for further queries and we’ll be more than happy to help.