Provision for Sending SMS for the Various Vaccinations Himanshi Varshney 1, Kajol Gupta 2

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1 Provision for Sending SMS for the Various Vaccinations Himanshi Varshney 1, Kajol Gupta 2 1,2 UG, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology for Women, Ghaziabad (India) ABSTRACT Vaccine alert is a model for children s vaccination reminder using short message service (SMS). The model consists of data flow in reminding parents of their children s vaccination schedule. Earlier practice on vaccination schedule was via written appointment. Nevertheless, such approaches may not be sufficient as parents may forget due to a tight work schedule and daily routines. The concept, Vaccine Alert, was evaluated by allowing selected respondents to use the developed prototype. The various results show that respondents do agree on the benefit of having reminder sent via SMS. KEYWORDS: Vaccine alert, SMS messages, Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, Database Server, HTTP, Ozeki Java SMS SDK INTRODUCTION Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate morbidity from infection. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; for example the influenza vaccine, the HPV vaccine, and the chicken pox vaccine. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the restriction of diseases such as polio, measles, and tetanus from much of the world. NEED OF VACCINE ALERT Vaccines are one of the best public health tools available to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of decreasing child mortality. A major reason for poor childhood vaccine coverage is the lack of awareness among parents regarding the need for immunization in children, and the importance of completing the entire series of vaccines. This result in significant drop-out between vaccines delivered at birth and late in the infancy period. New innovative methods involving technologies are needed to be employed to increase the vaccine coverage. Short message service (SMS) as a reminder tool can be extremely effective in health care settings at public health care. Customized SMS messages can be designed as personally tailored messages with text and/or pictures, and used to remind and inquire parents regarding vaccination for their children according to EPI schedule. A major advantage of SMS as a communication tool is that automated messages can be generated at specific times through computer programming, hence minimizing the need for valuable human resources. Messages are delivered directly with minimal intrusiveness, while maintaining privacy of the household members. Most importantly, the cost of sending automated SMS messages is extremely low, once the original infrastructure is established. Variable N=399 Willing to receive SMS reminders about child s immunization Yes 308(77) No 91(23) Preferred language for reminder SMS (n=308) 123

2 English 288(94) My native language 14(5) Pidgin 6(2) Preferred time of SMS reminder (n=308) On the day of the appointment 8(3) A day before appointment 183(60) A week before appointment 99(32) Other 18(6) Prefers reminders to SMS (n=308) 108(35) Prefers telephonic reminders to SMS (n=308) 206(67) Perception of benefit expected to be received via SMS/telephonic/ reminder (n=399) Very beneficial 274(64) Somewhat beneficial 31(8) Not beneficial 4(1) Indifferent 7(2) Non response 83(21) Willing to pay for SMS/telephonic reminder 213(53) Median amount for SMS reminder N10.00 (6 cents) Median amount for telephonic reminder N20.00 (12 cents) Table 1: Respondent s attitudes towards reminders for vaccination appointments Variables Total N=399 Willing n=308 Not Willing n=91 p-value Ages (100) 10(40) 14(60) < (100) 226(80) 56(20) 35 and above 93(100) 72(78) 21(22) Highest level of education No formal 7(100) 0(0) 7(100) <0.001 Primary 14(100) 9(64) 5(36) Secondary 127(100) 87(69) 40(31) Post-secondary 251(100) 212(84) 39(16) Marital status Never married 8(100) 2(25) 6(75) <0.001 Currently married 384(100) 304(86) 80(21) Separated/divorced/widowed 7(100) 2(29) 5(71) Owns a mobile phone Yes 389(100) 301(77) 88(23) No 10(100) 7(70) 3(30) Has a personal computer Yes 179(100) 147(82) 32(18) No 220(100) 161(73) 59(27) Currently uses the Internet Yes 263(100) 210(80) 53(20) No 136(100) 98(72) 38(28) Has a address 124

3 Yes 258(100) 207(80) 51(20) No 141(100) 101(72) 40(28) Ever received SMS reminder Yes 207(100) 158(76) 49(24) No 192(100) 150(78) 42(22) Ever missed clinic appointment Yes 74(100) 62(84) 12(16) No 325(100) 246(76) 79(24) Table 2: Factors associated with willingness to receive SMS reminders about child immunization PROPOSED STRATEGY Admin System Query vaccination details Select the vaccination Display vaccination details Query to send the SMS/ Send SMS/ STIMULUS/ RESPONSES SEQUENCES Stimulus: Admin requests for vaccination details. Response: System displays the vaccination details. Stimulus: Admin requests to send the SMS/ by selecting the scheduled vaccination. Response: System sends the SMS/ for the selected vaccination. SMS Gateway: Ozeki NG- SMS gateway is used to send SMS. OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway is a high capacity SMS server that is very popular among ISV/OEM, enterprise and community users. It is recognized for its superior ease of use, performance and reliability. The software can be used to send and receive SMS text messages and various other message types, such as WAP push messages, operator logos and ring tones. The sending is done through IP SMS connections or GSM Modem connections. 125

4 OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway makes it possible to connect any application implementing business logic directly to the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) of a GSM service provider. This connection is possible through the Internet or through a leased line. INTERFACES AVAILABLE FOR SMS MESSANGING DATABASE SERVER One of the best methods to add SMS functionality to a JAVA application is to setup a configuration where we can send and receive text messages using database server. Data tables inside the database server can be shared between our application and SMS gateway. Thus our Java application can easily send messages by simple creating and reading database records. To implement this method two database tables should be created inside the database server. One will be used for storing incoming messages and the other will be used for storing outgoing messages. If the OZEKI NG- SMS gateway receives a message, it will store it into a database table called ozekimessagein. Similarly if OZEKI NG- SMS gateway sends a SMS from Java, it should store it in a table called ozekimessageout. The OZEKI NG- SMS gateway software will read the ozekimessageout database table periodically and if it finds a new record in it, it will send it as an SMS message. Figure 1: How to send and receive SMS message from Java with the help of database server HTTP REQUESTS HTTP is the simplest method to send data from one application to another. Java has native method calls to submit HTTP requests. This means that HTTP is a good choice to send SMS text messages to mobile phones. If we operate an SMS gateway in our network, for example the OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway, we can pass SMS messages to it using HTTP GET or HTTP POST method calls. Figure 2: How to send and receive SMS messages form Java through HTTP To be able to communicate with mobile phones, we need to pass our messages to the HTTP gateway. The HTTP Gateway has a built in web server, that provides an HTTP SMS API, that makes it possible 126

5 to submit messages. After our messages arrive to the SMS Gateway, they will be sent to the mobile network through one of the channels we have configured previously. For example, the SMS gateway can operate a mobile phone attached to the PC with a data cable and can use this mobile phone to send and receive our messages. If we want to receive SMS message in our JAVA application, we have two options. We can periodically download incoming messages from the built in web server of the OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway, or we can setup a HTTP Client user that will post incoming messages to our JAVA application through HTTP. OZEKI JAVA SMS SDK Ozeki has released the Java SMS SDK. This SDK communicates with the OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway, through a TCP/IP socket. The socket is always connected, which makes it possible, to receive SMS delivery reports and incoming SMS messages instantly. The Ozeki Java SMS SDK implements the TCP/IP communication and provides methods calls and events we can implement to achieve the desired functionality. Using this SDK very fast and efficient SMS solution can be developed. CONCUSION Figure 3: Ozeki Java SMS SDK, communicates through a TCP/IP socket To be able to use this SDK, we need to install OZEKI NG- SMS Gateway into our corporate network. OZEKI NG- SMS gateway will be responsible for attaching our system to the mobile network. It will receive the TCP/IP connections from the JAVA SMS SDK and it will send and receive SMS messages through the configured communication method. For example, we can send/receive SMS messages through a GSM phone attached to our computer with a phone to PC data cable, or we can send/receive SMS messages through the Internet if we have subscribed for an internet SMS service. Everyone had better access to mobile phones and internet and the majority were willing to receive SMS reminders for their child s vaccination schedule. Future intervention strategies should explore payment mechanisms for SMS reminders as almost half of the respondents were unwilling to bear the cost. REFRENCES