Chapter 6: E-System for Public Health in India: Towards and Architectural Framework Incorporating Illiteracy Linguistic Diversity

Public health stands for the study and practice of those activities and initiatives that result in the prevention and reduction of incidences of illnesses and diseases in the population. The application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can considerably facilitate Public Health project initiatives. In spite of the huge benefits of using ICT in Public Health, it can also pose considerable challenges in certain populations, pertaining to the access and comprehension of information shared through modern technology stemming from a range of issues such as illiteracy, demographic and linguistic diversity, differing economic strata of people, and differing priorities. In this chapter, after presenting a discussion on the issues faced by the public and relevant systems thinking approaches that may enable addressing the same, we propose a visionary architectural framework for ICT in Public Health through the eye of systems thinking. We have called this framework e-System for Public Health (ePH). The understanding draws heavily from the Indian context as the country presents an interesting array of the challenges that we have mentioned above. KEY TERMS E-System for Public Health (ePH), Architectural Framework, Critical Systems Thinking, Postmodernism, User Interface, E-Governance