arun kumar chakraborty

The government of India has started concentrating on developing rural health infra - structure to provide primary health care services to most of the rural population, which had been by and large remained neglected. Though the government provides healthcare facilities to rural people, they are not effectively reaching them. The purpose of the study is to explore the public health information services, which ascertain the information needs of the Balasore district’s rural inhabitants, and to develop an integrated Public Health Information Service (PHIS) model for health communication that promotes public health.

A survey was conducted with the help of a structured questionnaire developed to gather information regarding public health communication infrastructures and services rendered by the medical officers, rur al inhabitants, and the librarians of the medical college and public libraries of the Balasore district of Odisha.

The authors found a situation that demands an assessment of a suitable PHIS model to fulfill the health information requirement of the rural inhabitants of the Balasore district of Odisha.

This integrated public health information service model is conceptualized and is based on the suitability of health information exchange for rural people.