Combining bottleneck analysis and quality improvement as a novel methodology to improve the quality of neonatal care in a northeastern state of India: a feasibility study.

Background: The State of Meghalaya, India, has some of the worst newborn health outcomes in the country. State health authorities commissioned an assessment of newborn service delivery to improve services. This study proposes bottleneck analysis (BNA) and quality improvement (QI) methods as a combined method to improve compliance with evidence-based neonatal interventions in newborn health facilities.

Experiences of Indian Health Workers Using WhatsApp for Improving Aseptic Practices With Newborns: Exploratory Qualitative Study.

Background: Quality improvement (QI) involves the following 4 steps: (1) forming a team to work on a specific aim, (2) analyzing the reasons for current underperformance, (3) developing changes that could improve care and testing these changes using plan-do-study-act cycles (PDSA), and (4) implementing successful interventions to sustain improvements. Teamwork and group discussion are key for effective QI, but convening in-person meetings with all staff can be challenging due to workload and shift changes. Mobile technologies can support communication within a team when face-to-face meetings are not possible.

Evaluation of the mobile nurse training (MNT) intervention - a step towards improvement in intrapartum practices in Bihar, India.

Background: Evidence shows that improving the quality of intrapartum care is critical for maternal survival. However, a significant rise in the proportion of facility-based births over the last decade in India - attributable to a cash transfer program - has not resulted in a corresponding reduction in maternal mortality, thanks, in part, to low-skilled care at facilities. The current study evaluated a mobile knowledge-based intervention aimed at improving quality of care by mentoring in-service staff nurses at public obstetric facilities.

Reproductive Tract infections and Premalignant Lesions of Cervix: Evidence from Women Presenting at the Cancer Detection Centre of the Indian Cancer Society, Delhi, 2000-2012.

Objectives: Burden of cervical cancer (CC) is highest for women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Human papillomavirus (HPV) is implicated as the necessary cause of CC although a number of other factors aid the long process of CC development. One among them is the presence of reproductive tract infections (RTIs).

Impact of a Nursing Skill-Improvement Intervention on Newborn-Specific Delivery Practices: An Experience from Bihar, India.

Background: High neonatal mortality in India had previously been attributed to the low proportion of institutional deliveries. However, a significant rise in the proportion of facility-based births over the last decade has not achieved the desired reduction in neonatal mortality possibly as a result of low-skilled care at facilities. This study evaluated the effectiveness of "Mobile Nurse Training," a knowledge-based intervention for nurses to improve essential newborn-specific delivery practices.

Prakriti and its associations with metabolism, chronic diseases, and genotypes: Possibilities of new born screening and a lifetime of personalized prevention.

Ayurveda is one of the oldest health sciences of the world with concepts of tridosha and prakriti being core philosophies. These core concepts allow implementation of ways for not only personalized medicine and treatment but also personalized prevention. In the light of modern or current science, evidence has surfaced connecting the concepts of tridosha and prakriti with metabolic pathways, chronic diseases, and various genotypes.