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Analytica is one of the few developers of custom applications
on the Simputer, a low cost linux based
handheld indigenously developed in India. The Simputer
is the first handheld Internet appliance to have been
designed entirely in India from the electronics to the
software to the industrial engineering for the housing
of the device.
Analytica develops custom applications for various
domains like Sales and Retail, Data Collection Projects,
E-Eductation, Transportation and Fleet Management.
A case study of one of the projects on the Simputer
undertaken by Analytica is outlined here:
The World Health Organization (WHO) Data Collection
System
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This project involved the
design, development and implementation of a handheld-based
mobile application as part of the HIN Mobile Data
Management System for World Health Organization.
The system was aimed at providing a handheld PDA-based
tool for better supervision and data collection,
for the Senior Treatment Supervisor (STS) and
Senior Tuberculosis Laboratory Supervisor (STLS)
under the RNTCP program.
This project also covered
the information infrastructure for connecting
the various components at different levels of
this HIN system - from sub-district levels to
district level and beyond. The infrastructure
was aimed at facilitating the capture of patient
data, lab procedure data supervision & quality
control, control of inventory data and its analysis
for enhancing decision making at all levels.
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The eventual objective of this interconnected information
network was to make all the information automatically
available to the central statistical analysis station
at the Central Administration Authority, for advanced
statistical processing, report generation, and progress
tracking. This system also provided a customized front
end for the Simputer, complete with data synchronization
functions with the desktop computers located at base stations.
On the back-end, this system had facilities and support
for checking and validating the data transmitted to it
from the various handheld units in the system, and storing
it in a central repository. Report generation facility
was an inherent part of the system that allowed the data
to be printed using report templates pre-defined for the
RNTCP program.
The Simputer short for simple, inexpensive, multilingual
computer, is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by
which the benefits of IT can reach the common man. It
has a special role in the third world because it ensures
that illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer.
The key to bridging the digital divide is to have shared
device that permits truly simple and natural user interfaces
based on sight, touch and audio. Features
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