National Health Mission (NHM), J&K with technical support from Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) has piloted a client-centric Decision Support System (DSS) which is assisting Mid Level Health Provided (MLHP) in decision making process for managing Childhood diseases for improved screening and case management as well as appropriate referral of high risk children.

DSS is being piloted in two blocks Ganderbal & Nud of Ganderbal and Samba districts respectively. For effective implementation of DSS, trainings of all the MLHPs from these two blocks were conducted in the month of July, 2023. The training was also attended by the State Nodal Officer, Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) division, concerned District Programme Managers & District Programme Coordinators (NCDs) from NHM J&K. Participants were trained on using DSS application on their tablets and mobile phones and they were taken through the journey of its development and Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) classification for under five children. To build more clarity of the solution among all the participants, multiple clinical case scenarios of fever, cough and other symptoms in children less than 5 years were also presented.

All the participants found DSS APP to be very useful in terms of managing IMNCI among children less than 5 years, which will help them during their regular assessment and decision making while working at their respective Health and Wellness Centers.

NHM J&K have acknowledged the support provided by NIPI in the development and effective implementation of DSS APP for addressing morbidity and mortality in under five children in J&K.