Glucometer Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

New Age Solutions for Diabetic Care

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 10:47:37 +0000

Diabetes may not have a medically approved cure yet, but it sure can be turned a few knobs down with a well-balanced diet, regular exercise, and medication. Of course, one should follow a doctor’s advice for a lifestyle change. In the real world though, you look longingly at those French fries and convince yourself a few wouldn’t harm. Or you hit the snooze button and tell yourself, I will go for that long run tomorrow. And on and on you go, till your next visit to the Principal’s office, aka your doctor, where you hope miraculously for an improved report card. You are not alone my friend. Sticking to a regime requires discipline or an occasional reminder from your wellwishers (if you were me). A sight towards your goal and how far you have come in conquering it help matters further. Thankfully, plenty of new-age start-ups are here to make diabetes management and lifestyle changes easier.

Take for instance Life In Control and Wellthy Therapeutics. These digital platforms connect patients with doctors and coaches and provide personalized care in terms of diet and exercise plan. Users can create long-term health goals, follow-up daily tasks and keep tabs on their health profile including HbA1C and glucose levels, track medicines intake and understand how their daily routine affect these measures. These start-ups also give doctors the flexibility of reaching out to patients outside their clinical hours as well as to create and coach them on their personalized care plans. In the language of numbers, Life In Control has over 100 doctors on the platform and appears to have helped over a lakh patient with their app. Wellthy Therapeutics took the approach of a pilot program with diabetic patients and claims to have helped reduce both HbA1C levels by a little over 1% and an average weight reduction of 3.4 kgs over 16 weeks. It also got an endorsement by Asia’s largest diabetes association, Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India. Both the apps are available for download on Android and iOS platforms.

Adding to the growing list of startups are those that detect blood glucose and connect directly to your smartphone. BioSense SYNC, for instance, is a compact Glucometer with Bluetooth connectivity to a user’s phone. It provides a detailed analysis of blood sugar data collected over a number of days. Similar to other diabetes management apps, a user can map their glucose data with their eating and exercising habits. Taking these interventions a step further, the start-up BeatO not only provides a smartphone Glucometer but also a range of diabetic friendly food products to munch upon. Patients can order medicines, sync their fitness devices and count calories on food items consumed. As of today, BeatO has served more than 25000 customers with a daily user add-on of 75-100. Most of these diabetes management apps can instantly connect a patient to a diabetic coach in case the sugar levels are off, and alert the patient’s family as well on concerning trends.

Complimenting these health management gurus, patients are also likely to benefit if there were devices providing at home diagnosis for diabetic complications, such as neuropathy, kidney malfunction or diabetic retinopathy. Scintiglo by Cutting Edge Medical Devices, Anupath by PathShodh and Sparsha by Yostra Labs have created Point of Care (PoC) tests to detect the first two complications. Scintiglo is a small handheld device that detects urinary proteins (should be trace levels in a healthy individual) at a low cost with remarkable accuracy and connects to a smartphone through a custom app. Anupath uses unique test strips for detection of specific biomarkers of diabetes, while also eliminating the need of usual sample preparation that one sees in clinics. Patients can get a comprehensive reading of their plasma and urine protein levels, HbA1c levels blood glucose and hemoglobin. While Sparsha, as the name suggests, focuses on touch-based tests that can diagnose diabetic peripheral neuropathy and send reports via users’ smartphone. Funded by the Department of Biotechnology grant (BIRAC), these start-ups focus on low-cost solutions, so an average user can save money on constant check-ups. Low costs also allow these start-ups to cater to rural segments of India, where a healthcare worker can refer patients to tertiary hospitals based on initial reports by these devices.

The complication of retinopathy, as mentioned above, relates to the slowly progressive disease of the eye and is one of the leading causes of blindness in diabetic patients. This segment is addressed by start-ups like ChironX and Artelus that use artificial intelligence to detect or monitor diabetic retinopathy risks from retinal image scans. Both the start-ups have achieved high accuracy of detection (over 95%) while the technology of AI confers an easy benefit of scanning retinas at a much faster speed to doctors and hospitals. Artelus also boasts to have saved over 3900 eyes so far from diabetic complications.

Given the burden of diabetes in every aspect of life (behavioral, physiological and financial), being handheld into recovery could be motivating for many patients. For maximum impact, we need to reach the furthest demographic corners of India, as diabetes has a growing prevalence in all sectors of the country. Infact, why wait for diabetes to knock at your door? One can also mitigate pre-diabetic conditions or reduce the chances of developing diabetes later in life. These start-ups aim to provide that ecosystem, where a patient can be led into an improved, healthy lifestyle at minimal costs. And just as it is heartening to see the growing awareness of Indians towards their health, it is equally imperative that these solutions are also as democratic as possible. Importantly in a booming start-up scenario, maintaining data integrity, complete transparency between doctors, patients and companies as well as strict adherence to ethical standards would go a long way in ensuring patient trust in this system.

About the author

Urvashi (Raheja) Bhattacharyya is a Biomedical Science graduate from Delhi University and a Ph.D. from National Centre for Biological Sciences. When not running behind her toddler, she spends time reading stuff about the brain, AI, ML, and latest innovations. Writing keeps her calm.

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InnoHEALTH Magazine | Volume 4 Issue 1 | Innovation in Diabetes – Unmet Needs
Highlights

Exclusive interview of H.E Klas Molin, Ambassador of Sweden to India on “Sweden-India collaboration in the health sector”
Digital healthcare
DISHA: Need of the hour. How crucial is DISHA (Act) for the healthcare industry?

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Advantages & Disadvantages : Real Time Health Monitoring Devices

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:25:59 +0000

Real-time health monitoring devices provide real-time analysis of the patient’s health parameters. Patients are sharing their healthcare information in real time with their caregivers through these devices for flexible health monitoring and management. Internet of medical things is vastly improving the healthcare condition of patients.

“Reacts’ secure, versatile and interactive collaboration platform deployed on technology solutions like Philips Lumify can change education and patient care models and enable a positive disruptive change to healthcare,” Dr. Yanick Beaulieu, CEO and Founder of IIT, said in a statement. “For years, clinicians in the field have been trying to piece together systems that offer real-time, interactive teleultrasound capabilities. Now, it has truly arrived.”

Tracking patient monitoring and drug management has become possible because of the usage of the above Internet of Things (IoT) medical devices in the healthcare sector. Increasing aging population, surging healthcare expenses and an increase in the occurrence of chronic diseases is driving healthcare stakeholders to follow remote health management and patient monitoring seriously.

The global market for Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices is expected to reach USD 67,982.2 mil by 2022.

Segments: Global Real Time Health Monitoring Devices Market has been segmented on the basis of the type which comprises of wearable devices, home health medical devices. On the basis of the end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, ambulatory centers, and home care settings.

Incorporating Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices in chronic disease management can significantly improve an individual’s quality of life. It allows patients to maintain independence, prevent complications and minimize personal costs. RPM facilitates these goals by delivering care right to the home. In addition, patients and their family members feel comfortable knowing that they are being monitored and will be supported if a problem arises. This is particularly important when patients are managing complex self-care processes such as home hemodialysis. Key features of Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices, like remote monitoring and trend analysis of physiological parameters, enable early detection of deterioration; thereby, reducing the number of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and duration of hospital stays. The need for wireless mobility in healthcare facilitates the adoption of RPM both in the community and institutional settings. The time saved as a result of RPM implementation increases efficiency and allows healthcare providers to allocate more time to remotely educate and communicate with patients.

Technological components of Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices

The diverse applications of RPM lead to numerous variations of RPM technology architecture. However, most RPM technologies follow a general architecture that consists of four components.
Sensors on a device that is enabled by wireless communications to measure physiological parameters.
Local data storage at patients’ site that interfaces between sensors and other centralized data repository and/or healthcare providers.
Centralized repositories to store data sent from sensors, local data storage, diagnostic applications, and/or healthcare providers.
Diagnostic application software that develops treatment recommendations and intervention alerts based on the analysis of collected data.
Depending on the disease and the parameters that are monitored, different combinations of sensors, storage and applications may be deployed.

Application of Real Time Health Monitoring Devices Physiological data such as blood pressure and subjective patient data are collected by sensors on peripheral devices. Examples of peripheral devices are blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, and glucometer. The data are transmitted to healthcare providers or third parties via wireless telecommunication devices. The data are evaluated for potential problems by a healthcare professional or via a clinical decision support algorithm, and patient, caregivers and health providers are immediately alerted if a problem is detected. As a result, timely intervention ensures positive patient outcomes. The newer applications also provide education, test, and medication Advantages and Disadvantages of Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices reminder alerts, and a means of communication between the patient and the provider. The following section illustrates examples of RPM applications, but RPM is not limited to those disease states.

Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices – Limitations and Overcome Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices are highly dependent on the individual’s motivation to manage their health. Without the patient’s willingness to be an active participant in their care, Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices implementation will likely fail. Cost is also a barrier to its widespread use. There is a lack of reimbursement guidelines for RPM services, which may deter its incorporation into clinical practice. The shift of accountability associated with RPM brings up liability issues. There are no clear guidelines with respect to whether clinicians have to intervene every time they receive an alert regardless of the urgency. The continuous flow of patient data requires a dedicated team of healthcare providers to handle the information, which may, in fact, increase the workload. Although technology is introduced with the intent to increase efficiency, it can become a barrier to some healthcare providers that are not technological.

There are common obstacles that health informatics technologies encounter that applies to Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices. Depending on the comorbidities monitored, Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices involves a diverse selection of devices in its implementation. Standardization is required for data exchange and interoperability among multiple components. Furthermore, Real-Time Health Monitoring Devices deployment is highly dependent on an extensive wireless telecommunications infrastructure, which may not be available or feasible in rural areas.

Note – this article has been contributed by -Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

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Skin Patch to Detect ‘Silent’ Heart Attacks

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 11 May 2018 07:24:37 +0000

The death of his grandfather due to heart attack led Manoj Akash, a class 10th student of Ashok Leyland School in Hosur, Karnataka, to invent skin patch which has to be attached to the wrist or the back of the ear and it will release a small ‘positive’ electrical impulse, which will attract the negatively charged protein released by the heart to signal a heart attack. If the quantity of this protein – FABP3 — is high, the person must seek immediate medical attention.

Since class eight he started visiting the library of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru – an hour away from his hometown. He could not afford expensive books and journals. Only option left to visit library for this enterprising adolescent who had an extra knack to comprehend complexities of cardiology just because of his penchant for the heart diseases studies. He was chosen for the President’s Innovation Scholar’s In-Residence Programme at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The 16-year-old says that he investigated a novel concept that could potentially allow patients to detect silent heart attacks by non-invasively sensing the FABP3 biomarker in the bloodstream. ABP3 is a lightweight protein, releases quickly from heart muscle into the bloodstream during a heart attack, and therefore, it is an optimal cardiac diagnostic marker.

According to him, doctors may test a patient’s blood for FABP3. If he or she experiences characteristic symptoms like chest pain. However, not all heart attacks make themselves known through easily noticeable signs. Silent heart attacks, which are becoming increasingly common, are asymptomatic, making them more dangerous than conventional heart attacks.

Patients often “drop dead” while feeling completely normal. This collapse happened to my grandfather on July 3rd, 2015 which served as an impetus for me to find a solution to this problem. In these “silent” cases, doctors are unlikely to administer the crucial FABP3 blood test because there is no visible presentation of symptoms to warrant a diagnostic test. As a result, silent heart attacks go unnoticed.

“I realized that if at-risk patients could test themselves daily for the presence of FABP3 in their blood. They would have higher chances of detecting silent heart attacks as they occur. A method that allows daily self-testing would have to be non-invasive, safe, and easy to use. Ultimately, it would have to involve a transcutaneous blood analysis, which examines the contents of one’s blood without penetrating the skin.

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In searching for ways to tackle this challenging prospect. I examined the various distinguishing characteristics of blood proteins that would allow them to be identified transcutaneously. I found that proteins have distinctive masses and electric charges in blood.

So, I used a model to test whether different magnitudes of charged electricity. When applied to a thin area of skin, would isolate FABP3 from the other blood proteins and attract FABP3 to the capillary walls. My results showed that this is true.

This means that the technique that I investigated can potentially be coupled with transcutaneous UV-protein quantification to non-invasively measure the amount of FABP3 in a patient’s blood and alert him or her of a silent heart attack.”

Help Million Hearts Stay Healthy! Is his web page that narrates his vision.

He was frequenting scientific conventions to further his knowledge in the science field. Internet gave him a lot of insight, he admits Clinical trials for the medical device are on. And it could be approved for a human trial. The product would be fit to be launched in the market after two months of human trial, assuming nothing goes wrong.

“I have already filed for a patent and I would tie up with the department of biotechnology for the trial. I would want the Government of India to take the project instead of selling it to a private company because it is for the public good,” he says on his website.

To monitor, regular use small silicon patch stuck to your wrist or back of your ear. Whether there has been a heart attack instead of waiting for a doctor to prescribe a test.

The patch uses a positively charged electrical impulse to draw negatively charged —protein to the surface; If the amount of FABP3 is high, then the person would need immediate medical attention; Experts recommend to use the device twice a day. The product can soon be in the market. It would cost around R 900, cheaper than a glucometer symptoms at all.

Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels all put you at risk of a silent heart attack, experts say. Having a silent heart attack puts people at a greater risk of having another heart attack, which could be fatal. Having another heart attack also increases the risk of complications, such as heart failure.

Chest pain, pain in the left arm or shortness is when of breath characterizes a silent heart attack. A silent heart attack may not show symptoms of chest pain and shortness of breath that doesn’t feel heart attack. Akash aims to study cardiology at the country’s premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.

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TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 06:43:37 +0000

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Dr. Sanjiv Kumar is MBBS and MD from AIIMS, New Delhi, DNB in MCH and MBA in Strategic Management. He has 41 years of experience in public health across 29 countries. He started as Medical Officer in Indian Army. He taught Preventive and Social Medicine at University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He then joined UNICEF and worked for 22 years at various levels in 29 countries. He worked as Executive Director at National Health Systems Resource Centre, New Delhi. Dr Sanjiv Kumar is back to teaching as Director, International Institute of Health Management and Research in New Delhi.

Dr. Nishikant Bele received his Doctorate in Computer Science from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa and MCA from Amravati University Amravati, Maharashtra. Dr. Nishikant has over 16+ years of experience in teaching, training, administration and research with prominent organizations. He is a SAP certified ERP Solution consultant. He had published research papers in various journals of international repute and has attended and presented papers in many international and national conferences. His areas of interest are: Health Informatics, Business Analytics, ERP, Data Modeling & Database Designing, Web and Text Mining.

India has made substantial progress in health. This is also reflected in some of the millennium development goal MDG targets that have been achieved and for others substantial progress has been made. Under-five mortality rate has declined from 126 (1990) to 48 (2015) and maternal mortality ratio from 560 to 174 during the same period. Though India missed MDG target of 42 and 140 respectively for these two indicators but the progress is remarkable. The estimated number of child deaths have come down from 3.2 million in 1990 to 1.1 million in 2015 which means 3,300 child lives saved every day!

However this progress does not commensurate with the economic and technology progress India has made. Our neighbouring countries with lesser development have made better progress. For example, the under-five mortality rate in the neighbouring counties of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh is 9, 36 and 38 respectively, against 48 in India (Kumar S, Bothra V, Mairembam DS, 2016). Innovations in program and technology offers an opportunity to accelerate improvement in health in India. The ministry of health and family welfare has actively encouraged the state governments to innovate, identify innovations that address the burden of diseases, are cost effective and replicable. The government provides technical and financial support to scale them up. We look at how technology innovations in public health system in India can help accelerate its progress in improving health.

Opportunities

There are many opportunities available in India today for innovations. Indians have provided substantial inputs to digital revolution across the world. However within India we have only recently started efforts to harvest the benefits for the Indian population. The recently launched ‘Digital India’ strategy in 2014, has made many government services available online cutting down delays, red tapism and corruptions. A common man is making payment for day today necessities online or through mobile telephones saving time and money. A related initiatives to accelerate innovations in the ‘Start-up India’ campaign facilitates bank financing and creates a favourable business environment for start-up ventures including technology innovations. Similarly, the ‘Make in India’ launched in 2014, encourages Indian and multinational companies to manufacture technology and medical devices in India.

The global statistics shows that the 4.61 billion mobile users in 2015 from 4.01 billion in 2013. In 2017 the number of mobile phone users is forecast to reach 4.77 billion. Considering the challenge in grabbing this opportunity, there is a need to respond with service innovation. Overall, consumers and society will reap the fruits of this technological and socio-economic development. Data consumption is growing 65 percent annually for accessing services such as e commerce and e-learning.

Bharat Net’s aim is to connect India’s 250,000 Panchayats at an estimated cost of $18 billion. Health and education have been identified as priority areas to benefit from this connectivity. There are alternative approaches to connect India, including cable TV pipes and White spaces (refers to the unused TV channels between the active ones). These and many other opportunities are available in abundance today. The Digital India, National Skill Development Corporation,Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Kayakalp Awards, creating ‘Smart Cities’ are some more opportunities to mention.

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Ministry of Health & Family Welfare promotes innovation in public health

Considering the tremendous potential in technology to compliment, accelerate effective implementation of health care, all the states have been encouraged to include innovations in the state programme implementation plans under National Health Mission (NHM). Annual national summits are held to recognize share successful efforts by the states. To facilitate this entire process including identification and review of such innovations a platform of ‘www.nhinp.org’ portal has been created. This allows uploading of innovations.

There are two categories of innovations program innovation and product innovation. Program innovation includes service delivery including referral, governance, treatment compliance, reduce cost of care or out of pocket expenditure etc. the product innovations include medical devices, innovative technologies including healthcare IT, m-health, and Tele-health/ E-health.

There are norms set for inclusion and exclusion of innovations. The inclusion criteria are –relevance to health needs, address endemic health problems and or diseases, facilitates accessibility, affordability, reduce cost of care, ensure quality and safety of healthcare product and process, and bridge skill gap required in service delivery. Similarly, the exclusion criteria are – Specific drugs, surgical or medical procedures or practices that need evaluation through one or more of the processes such as- Randomized controlled trials, Systematic Reviews, Meta-analysis etc, and Incomplete Documentation. The screening processes well laid out. This involves a six member screening group at NHSRC and an in depth reviews held by product and program committee.

In health, states are encouraged to propose innovation in program implementation plans for approval. In addition, to encourage and recognize the successful efforts, National Summits on Good and Innovative practices were initiated. In continuation, National Health Innovation Portal was launched by Shri. J. P. Nadda, Hon’ble Health Minister of India, in the year 2015. To strengthen and sustain the efforts further, Health Technology Assessment Workshops were held. In all, six such workshops with 325 participants were trained. To strengthen the whole effort, there has been health technology assessment trainings being conducted for non-invasive Haemoglobinometer and Glucometer, urine strip analyzer, SMS enabled patient monitor etc.

Table 1: Technology can help India leapfrog to improve health by addressing challenges, some examples:

Challenges		How technology can help: examples
Preventive Care
Health Promotion	Lack of physical activity, dietary intake, stress level	Mobile Apps to monitor physical activity, stress level, foodintake etc
	Lack of awareness of wellness, healthy lifestyle, mental illness, awareness on domestic violence	Films on Youtube and smartphone, mobile apps, SMS, Cloudbased screening and monitoring of mental health
Family Health including MCH	Lack of health record	Electronic Family Health Record for all family membersincluding those with NCDs linking it to UID, ANM Online
	Record of child and maternal care	Electronic Health record
	Lack of awareness	Mother and Child Tracking System Sending SMS to beneficiaries to alert them regarding services due to them, or services which have become overdue using M-health
Curative care
Disease outbreak	Lack of clinical and personal health data	Machine Learning based Predictive Analytics for providing hyper-personal, actionable insights.
	Lack of awareness and counselling (HIV/AIDS)	Mobile Apps for counselling, awareness, mobile apps for nurse, doctor for monitoring
	Lack of real time monitoring (Lymphatic Filariasis Mass Drug Administration)	SMS Reporting Program for ASHA
Access and Quality
Access to health care	Shortage of Doctors	E consultations, Any Time Medicine
	Shortage of specialists	Tele-medicine, tele-radiology, tele-ophthalmology
	Delay in fund flow and poor monitoring	Automation in Fund flow: PFMS
	Stock outs of drugs and other consummables	online tendering and monitoring linked to supply chain management such as E aushadhi in Rajasthan and similar initiatives in other states
Quality Monitoring Performance	Unsatisfied beneficiaries and in extreme cases become violent against health care providers	Patient feedback and grievance redressal system usingtelephone, internet etc
	long term patient records are not available	Interoperable Electronic Health Records connected electric family health record
	Delay in getting reports	Real time online dash boards
Hospital care	Problems with Record keeping, symptom monitoring,Psychiatric Patient localization, inventory management,supply chain management, lack of real time monitoring of hospital activities and data, medical device tracking and management, dialogue between patients, or between patients and health professionals, health promotion	Linking Family Health records with Electronic Health Record, Radio Frequency Identifier Devices, Smart cards, Kiosk, dashboard for reatime hospital monitoring, Data Analytics, Social Media, Internet of Thing

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Whole of population approach for addressing population health:

The world is moving towards promoting health among those who are healthy. Technology can help us in achieving this as traditionally people approach healthcare providers only after falling sick. Technology can help us in providing health related inputs to the whole population. The conceptual framework (Kumar S, Preetha GS 2012) is useful while addressing and ensuring health in a population. This framework broadly categorises the whole population in four sections (Fig. 2):

a. H ealthy Population (with no risk factors and no disease)
b. P opulation with Risk Factors
c. P opulation with Disease but not aware
d. P opulation known to have Disease

With the above categorization, the health efforts can be strategized and concentrated, for example – provision of preventive and promotive health services to the population categorised as (a) Healthy population; screening and promotive health services, (b) building resilience for population categorised as Population with risk factors; early detection, treatment and care including limiting disability and rehabilitation along with healthy lifestyle for category (c); and compliance to treatment and care along with healthy lifestyle for category (d) which is known to have disease.

Is technology innovation addressing major killers?

At this stage, it is very essential that we look at what are the major causes of death in India and address these. The seven major causes of deaths in India were prominently evident from WHO’s India Country Profile of Burden of Disease, NCD 2014. Accordingly, in all 98, 16,000 lakhs estimated deaths took place in India. An estimated 27,48,480 (28%) deaths can be attributed to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions put together, 25, 52,160 (26%) to cardiovascular diseases, 12,76,080 (13%) to chronic respiratory diseases, injuries taking toll of 11,77,920 (12%), cancers causing 6,871,20 (7%), diabetes 1,96,320 (2%) and other NCDs being 11,77,920 (12%).

Above understanding regarding causes of deaths in India shall not only inform the overall planning towards actions required for addressal but could be complemented by technological.

Some Innovations that can revolutionise healthcare in India:
Family health folders:

This has been another initiative which looks at family as a unit and tries to maintain health record for each and every member which could be linked and segregated for individual service like immunization, antenatal care, postnatal care, spacing methods, next month’s medicines, BP records etc. this initiative has been piloted in AIIMS and INCLEN projects in some of the states like Rajasthan called Jan Swasthya, Madhya Pradesh and in Himachal Pradesh by the name of ANMOL. There is a provision of print work plan for next day/ week/ fortnight/ month. Also, it can be linked with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

Electronic Health Records (EHR):

Government is working on EHR to ensure continuity and quality of care. EHR will help in recording disease episodes and core plans and would allow data portability between different providers. Also, the metadata and data standards have been developed for it. Not only between clinical systems but also between support systems such as HR, Finance, Logistics, Lab, Emergency Transport FHR etc.There is also a possibility of establishing linkage to UID (Aadhar card).

Access: Free essential drugs:

To widen the accessibility of free drug services, there is a web based supply chain management system (e-Aushadhi) has been created. This system allows online tracking of drug inventory. It enables steamlining of inter-drug warehouse transfer and efficient control of inventory. Also, it enables multi users and multi-location for storage. This initiative has been implemented by various states like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu& Kashmir and at various stage in other states.

Access: Healthcare Any Time Medicine (ATM):

Presently, there are about 25 percent PHCs without a doctor, in India. This calls for innovative approach to address the challenges and originated an innovation called AT M. AT M, piloted by National Health Systems Resource Centre, New Delhi, provides Tele-consultation supported with mobile phone and the generic drug vending machine. The pilots have been conducted in five states [HP, Odisha, MP (3-4 each), UP (100) and AP (100). Total cost of this initiative per facility has been only 3 lakhs.

Access: Telemedicine:

Yet another example for use of technology is ‘Telemedicine’ which is very successfully piloted in states like Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Assam. With this technology, images and scans can be easily sent across the specialists for diagnosis and consultation for treatment; especially when specialized treatment is required and is not easily available nearby.

Automation of fund flow:

It has been the experience so far that programme activities suffer due to delay in fund transfer and in this context establishing public fund management system with the use of technology is a bliss. With this, automation of recording, verification and calculation of payments are done a smoother and faster way and electronic fund transfer (EFT) towards payments into recipient’s bank account becomes easy. This technology has been utilized in states like Rajasthan- with ASHA Soft, in Bihar- namely HOPE and Delhi.

To simply sum up, it is obvious that the technology can address access to and quality of health care in India. Many initiatives across the country exist and therefore there is a need to identify cost effective, scalable innovations which address bottlenecks and the burden of diseases. To enable this, there is a platform provisioned called National Health Innovation Portal, in India. This is an effort of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare commitment to support scale up of good and replicable practices in public health in India. There is a need to encourage innovations and the government must make resources available to scale up the promising innovations to reach the last beneficiary.

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