NIKSHAY Application
NIKSHAY has been launched by the Government of India with the intention of creating a tuberculosis free nation. To keep a track of the TB patients across the country, the Government of India has introduced a system called NIKSHAY. The word is combination of two Hindi words NI and KSHAY meaning eradication of tuberculosis. It is a web based solution for monitoring of TB patients under the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP) effectively. It is a web enabled and case based monitoring application and has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC). This is used by health functionaries at various levels across the country in association with Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. NIKSHAY covers various aspects of controlling TB using technological innovations. Apart from web based technology, SMS services have been used effectively for communication with patients and monitoring the programme on day to day basis.
The innovative IT application of NIKSHAY makes it possible for the grassroot level healthcare providers to track every TB patient. The most significant feature of NIKSHAY is that it promotes using IT by Tuberculosis Unit (TU) level. In this way, NIKSHAY also contributes to reduction of the digital divide. Video based training module has been developed in Hindi and English with message from Deputy Director General, CTD, emphasizing the importance of NIKSHAY in eradication of TB from India. NIKSHAY has been implemented at national, state, district and Tuberculosis Unit (TU) levels. Data entry in terms of registering the TB patient, pre-treatment and follow-up tests, treatment, HIV and contact tracing details is done at TU level. More than 3.5 lakh TB patients have been registered since its launch in June 2012. Such TB patient database is being used at district, state and national level for monitoring purposes.
NIKSHAY utilises SMS technology in an effective manner. Through SMS, it communicates with TB patients and grassroots level healthcare services providers as well as health and family welfare policy makers, health managers and health administrators at different tiers of the healthcare delivery system. Whenever a new patient is registered on NIKSHAY, an SMS is sent to the patient with registration ID and details of DOTS Operator along with advisory note to take the regular medicine. Daily SMS is sent to all monitoring authorities in CTD, to State TB Officers (STO), District TB Officers (DTO) giving the number of patients, Designated Microscopic Centre (DMC)/Peripheral Health Interface (PHI) registered, profiles of STOs, DTOs and TUs updated, entry of contractual manpower, Health Establishments registered and patients have been notified. The emergence of resistance to drugs being used to treat tuberculosis (TB), and particularly multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), has become a significant public health problem in a number of countries and an obstacle to effective TB control. NIKSHAY has also felt the importance of MDR-TB patients and a module has been developed for keeping the records of patients at Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL), who are referred for Culture and DST test. These patients could be from RNTCP or come as follow-up patients from DRTB Centres or directly sent for pre-treatment test.
During the last five month of its operations, substantial improvement has been observed in RNTCP operations. Programme implementing authorities at all levels are now enabled to retrieve details of any TB patient and if necessary, contact them for monitoring their DOTS administration schedule. The TB patients are now being given advisories through SMS. This facility has helped in awareness generation as well as encouraging patients to comply with their DOTS Programme. Another benefit of NIKSHAY is correlation between TB & HIV, leading to outcome analysis of treatment, which may give new directions to TB treatment in the coming years.
