AshaConnect: Bridging Healthcare to Every Doorstep

Abstract: Healthcare provision in rural India depends on the activities of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA workers), who traditionally utilize paper-based workflows. These workflows were found to be associated with frequent loss of information, travel issues, and poor patient show rates in referral hospitals. This research presents an innovative approach to digitize the process. This approach involves the design and implementation of the web-based health management system, AshaConnect. The system includes role-based portals for ASHA workers and hospitals, thus allowing for electronic patient registration, longitudinal tracking of health status, online appointment scheduling, and automatic exchange of reports between two parties. The solution has been built using technologies including Node.js, Express.js, SQLite, and web-native programming. It was built with three-tier RESTful architecture. The new software has been evaluated against the existing paper-based workflow by comparing the performance of both systems in eight aspects. The results showed that AshaConnect can bring substantial improvement in record keeping, hospital readiness, and patient care coordination. Overall, the proposed solution appears to be able to replace ASHA worker workflow fully.

Keywords: ASHA worker; rural healthcare; digital health; patient management; appointment booking; hospital coordination; health records; Node.js; SQLite