Paper Title
Practices Of Healthcare Personnel Working In Primary Health Centres Of Udupi District Of India about Using Mobile Phones For Health Information Management

Abstract
India is developing its Primary Health Centers (PHC) to effectively disseminate its various health initiatives to the community at large. To achieve these, various healthcare technologies, including Mobile phones, are being employed to enable the healthcare personnelworking at PHCs in theirHealth Information Management (HIM) needs.A cross-sectional study was carried out during March to May 2014 among 209 healthcare personnel working in all (59) the Primary Health Centers of Udupi district in the state of Karnataka, India to understand their HIM practices using Mobile phones. The data collected using a structured, pre-tested questionnaire was analysed using SPSS 16.0.The study result showed that 65% of the respondents used their mobile phones for receiving/giving feedbacks to/from higher authorities, 82.3% for replying to queries of the patients, and 91.9% as a communication tool. The findings were found to be significant with age of the respondents, their designations and also the type of phone used.Basic models used by most respondents was found to be a major reason for low-level of HIM practice using mobile phone at this district. Key words- Health Information Management, Primary Health Centers, Healthcare Personnel, Udupi district, Practice