Media Lab Asia (MLAsia), a not-for-profit R&D organisation under Department of Information Technology, set up to incorporate modern technology in public healthcare system, is currently initiating a project in Malappuram, Kerala, to compile health related database from the general public for future reference.
The two year project, in collaboration with the state government's e-literacy programme - Akshaya, is expected to utilise Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for collecting information on disease prevalent in general public and the current treatment meted out for preparing a central database from an estimated number of 4 lakh citizens. The estimated cost of the project is less than Rs 2 crore.
Explaining various aspects of the project, Dr G V Ramaraju, Principal Research Director, Media lab Asia states "We are trying out the potentials of ICT in this project. The plan is to record data, say like vaccination details of children, disease history inputs etc will be recorded by field agents on the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and sent to central database. Thus we have a medical history of what exactly has been achieved in that place till now and we have it on record for ready reference. Our work has already begun in early this year."
The current initiative is a pilot project in Malappuram branching out to twenty Primary Health Care centres to collect on field data that will be transmitted through Akshaya centres called e-Kendra's. Akshaya e- Kendra's are set up within 2-3 kilometres of every household so it becomes easier for data collection purposes.
When asked about the specifics of the initiative, Dr Ramaraju said, " we have identified the PHCs in Malappuram district and a team has been chosen for the job. The time frame of two years will include installation period to project completion that will hand out observations and feedback about the venture to MLAsia. The organisation is expecting data from around 20,000 people per PHC, which will total to four lakh entries roughly".
The PDA device works through a software and algorithm that will suitably accept the data, which will be stored in a step-by-step manner. It is done depending upon the collected information, thus enabling the team to have all details of a person, his medical history, ailments details, register them. A diverse option exists on the device to record the needed information.
MLAsia is planning to develop a low cost PDA to suit the particular requirement and the aim is to design a device that would cost around five thousand rupees in collaboration with partners from the industry. The organisation is also looking forward to a public private partnership for projects in future, he added.
The organisation will incorporate the help of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, (CDAC) with a host of NGOs for completing the project. The impact of this exercise is that there will be mapping that provides a picture of the health care needs of a state needs in terms of drugs, medicine, which is of great interest to pharma companies.
Ramaraju was guarded in his reply when asked on the efficacy of this venture "You have to understand that the acceptance of a system paves way for further advancements and future use. If accepted this should be in place all over the country within two years time. Ministry of CIT ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) and Department of Information Technology is funding our project".
He cited the example of Haryana to allay fears regarding any complication in this project where they had a joint venture of the same kind with All India Institute of Medical Sciences where they had a data collection process underway with two PHC's and one Community Health centre. Forty thousand people co-operated in this venture. Ramaraju opines, "Haryana was the proof of this concept working perfectly and now it is on a larger scale."