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As a scientist at the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Dr. Anurag Agrawal often ponders the links between genes and lung disease. Could there be a connection between height, weight and a propensity to develop asthma? How might diet affect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?
In the winter of 2013, he started thinking: What if there was a way to use shipping containers to collect and mine people’s health records, thereby gaining insights into disease to provide treatment?
One such container eventually made its way to a village in Uttar Pradesh. Here, villagers could gain access to a paramedic, deposit blood samples and have a qualified doctor advise them by monitor. They could submit a cardiogram, have a doctor look at it within days and, if necessary, sound an alert.
The IGIB is one of 39 state-funded Council for Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories. As a government establishment, it had limited scope to expand. But five years ago, IGIB partnered with Narayana Health (NH), a renowned Indian multi-specialty hospital chain, and the American IT giant Hewlett-Packard, to install more than 40 such ‘eHealth’ centres in various parts of the country.
The NH network now uses these shipping containers as part of its rural healthoutreach, which includes electronic medical records (EMR), biometric patient identification and integrated diagnostic devices. The HP cloud-enabled technology allows for the monitoring of clinical and administrative data.
more at https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/the-promise-of-ehealth-for-rural-india/article25214896.ece
