VILLAGE NEWS
One Step Closer of Closing the Health Gap
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Ashish Mohan from Amrita CREATE recently went to Sarai Noruddinpur village in Uttar Pradesh to run a pilot project to collect health check-up data using newly developed software for tablets. Together with village coordinator Ajay and health worker Rekha they organized receptions especially for Self-Help Group members and their families in different locations of the village. Measuring vital signs, such as height, weight, blood pressure and pulse, they checked over 200 people. Other parameters like blood sugar, haemoglobin and calculated body mass index were also collected to complement the basic indicators. Parameters were entered manually into the tablet and sent for review to medical doctor Uma Nair who is serving as experienced consultant for Amrita SeRVe. Ashish is coordinating the health related part of Amrita Jeevanam software, which was developed by a research team of Amrita CREATE. He tests the software in practice, and observes how easily it can be used by the health workers. First he trains them, then he observes how they are using the kit, and finally he forwards their feedback to the developers. The aim is to make it as user-friendly as possible. Earlier he has been testing the software with the health worker in the Wayanad village in Kerala. When introduced to the procedures, the health workers are also given guidelines to identify when health parameters fall within critical limits that require immediate referral to Primary Health Center (PHC).