Philips Healthcare’s flagship Women's Healthcare Outreach Mobile programme, Asha Jyoti, has collaborated with Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), and the non-governmental organization RAD-AID to screen 4000 women in less than 20 months.

Asha Jyoti is a population-based screening programme of women aged between 40 and 60 years. The objective is to ensure early detection of breast cancer, cervical cancer and osteoporosis.

“Our vision for Asha Jyoti was to develop a high quality, mobile screening facility to provide decentralized primary healthcare on people’s doorsteps, to detect three major diseases effecting women’s health earlier, and to provide diagnostic follow-up and therapy to the community,” commented Dr N Khandelwal, professor and head, Department of Radiodiagnosis, PGIMER.

“A multidisciplinary team of health care specialists from PGIMER, formulated this program. Teams from Philips Healthcare and RAD-AID supported the initiative to reach the underserved population in the northern part of India,” he added.

To make the Asha Jyoti programme work, PGIMER delivers the clinical services, RAD-AID is providing educational training and program planning support to health workers and staff and Philips has donated all the equipment and also donated the entire van which was designed and built in India with local suppliers. Philips India is now working on extending the programme to other parts of India as well.

“While the Punjab chapter has been extremely successful, we hope that this program can be extended to other parts of India, so that we are able to help save more lives by detecting cancer at an early stage,” stated Dr Khandelwal.

The Asha Jyoti van built by Philips Healthcare, uses trailer with double axle to meet the tough Indian road conditions. It has a horse-cart structure so that the truck can negotiate in narrower turns as compared to single bus-like chassis. The van has been compartmentalized with radiation and non-radiation areas. The workflow has been optimized such that time taken during cervical examination is equivalent to time taken for breast and bone scans allowing screening of two women simultaneously.

The van is supported by air suspension to avoid damage to the equipment. It has three and external power supply, 30kV generator and a set of batteries. Its robust design enables easy traversing  across cities and rural areas around Chandigarh.

The digital mammograph obviates the need of any film chemistry and provides highest resolution images. The cervical cancer screening is being done with a new technique. The usual screening using acetic acid or vinegar is pictured using a colposcope at various intervals and using green filter. These pictures are cross-checked by gynaecologists at PGIMER for validation of the findings of the colposcopy technologist on board.