NMHS-2 · National Research Platform
The complete digital platform behind a national research survey.
- Project
- National Mental Health Survey 2 (NMHS-2)
- Sector
- Government & Public Health Research
- Datalk's delivery
- Infrastructure, backend, field application and support while the survey was live
Flagship programme:Technology partner
National Mental Health Survey 2 (NMHS-2)
We built the technology behind the world's largest psychiatric epidemiology survey.
2,50,000+Interviews with adults and adolescents
36States and Union Territories, a pan‑India survey
What we built
- Pan‑India survey infrastructure
- Digitised WHO FLII‑11
- Multilingual interviews
- Offline data collection
- Field‑to‑server sync
- Central data management
Conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, and funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The research paper is due out soon.Conducted by NIMHANS, Bengaluru; funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Research paper due soon. NMHS-2 programme overview (external site)
Context
Programme context
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, entrusted NIMHANS with planning and conducting NMHS-2. It covered all 36 States and Union Territories and included adolescents aged 13 to 17 alongside adults. It gathered evidence on mental health needs, how they affect people and their families, how services are used and what resources exist for care. Its findings are intended to inform policy and programme planning.
Delivery
Datalk's contribution
Datalk planned and built the complete digital platform for the survey. We were responsible for the infrastructure and backend, the application the field teams used, and the technical support that kept everything running for as long as the survey was in the field. We also digitised the WHO Flexible Interview for ICD-11 (FLII-11) for the survey.
From the field to the server
Interviews in the field
Field teams conducted every interview on Datalk's app, which carried the digitised WHO Flexible Interview for ICD-11 (FLII-11) and switched between languages.
Offline first
Each interview was saved on the device as it happened, so work carried on wherever the network was weak or missing, in every State and Union Territory.
Sync to the server
Whenever a connection was available, the app synced its interviews to the central server.
Infrastructure and data management
Datalk planned and ran the infrastructure behind it and the tools that kept 2,50,000+ interviews organised for the research team, with live support throughout fieldwork.
What this experience demonstrates
NMHS-2 shows what it looks like when one partner owns the whole technical scope of a major government research platform. Planning, development and live operation were handled by the same team, from the first architecture decision to the last day of the survey.
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