Description of Session
Intelehealth is a digital health platform that enables the delivery of comprehensive primary health care. Frontline Health Workers (FHWs) today are tasked with even more responsibilities than before. Using Intelehealth, FHWs can be guided to provide care for a wide range of services such as maternal and child health, reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, communicable diseases, mental health, geriatric care, etc. This is made possible by a virtual health assistant that is built into the Intelehealth app. This expert system, called "Ayu", guides FHWs in performing high-quality health consults. Ayu has a text-based interface and can be programmed using a series of rules by a simple visual tool. Ayu can support health workers in performing key tasks autonomously. When they require further support, they can connect with a physical expert using the telemedicine capabilities of the platform. Intelehealth and Ayu were developed at Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design. The tools are free & open source. Ayu is pre-programmed with 70+ history-taking and decision support protocols to support healthcare delivery through task-shifting. The library of protocols keep growing. Ayu can deliver protocols appropriate to the level of training of the FHW - whether they are CHWs, volunteers, midwives, nurses or doctors. The platform and expert system has been adopted by partner organizations in limited pilots in three countries - India, Philippines and Syria - demonstrating the feasibility of implementation and the acceptability of using an expert system for FHWs. The platform's implementation is supported by Intelehealth.org a tech non-profit that drives its open source dissemination. Currently Intelehealth.org & JHU CBID are working on version 2.0 of Ayu which includes integration of NLU and machine learning to make it an intelligent digital assistant.
