Date:02/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/02/stories/2004050211210500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

HISP India qualifies for Stockholm Final

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 1. Health Information Systems Programme (HISP) India has been qualified as finalists for the Stockholm Challenge, an awards programme for pioneering IT projects worldwide. It competed with 900 other projects from over 100 countries. The winners will be announced on May 13 at the Stockholm Challenge Final Events.

According to a press release issued here on Saturday, HISP India was initiated in Andhra Pradesh in 2000, with the primary objective of strengthening the health information practices within the Primary Health Care (PHC) sector with the larger mandate to improve processes by which information can be used to make health care delivery for the rural community more effective.

It was initiated as a pilot project in the Kuppam constituency of Chittoor district. After a positive evaluation of the Kuppam phase, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed for extending the project to 46 PHCs in Chittoor district. It was later extended to 23 district capitals in the State. HISP India was now registered as a `Not For Profit' society in Andhra Pradesh and had a group of 16 trainers working to improve the state of health care, it said.