IIT Madras develops technology to improve rural healthcare

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras has created an information technology application to track and enhance the health of rural scheduled caste (SC) people in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. The open-source IT software will be used to collect thorough annual health-related data at the household level.

As per IIT Madras, the information gathered through this application will be utilised to provide nutritional guidance on important health issues as well as an unbiased assessment of the effects of medical treatment. “This would result in the development of an optimal rural healthcare strategy based on treatment efficacy and costs” it informed.

The project was carried out in the Scheduled Caste community of E Palaguttapalli SC and its neighbouring hamlets, PakaJa Mandal and Pulicherla Mandal, in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. There are approximately 100 Scheduled Caste households in the district with an average of 5–6 members per household.

Informing about the technology, the officials stated that the traditional diet of people in Andhra Pradesh included a lot of milk products, fish and other aquatic meat, along with ragi and other millets. Their current diet is dry and subpar, lacking in dals, milk products, or meat due to poverty.

Drs. Harnath Chary and Gnana Prasoonaamba from the SV College of Ayurveda visited the villages once every two months and assisted in the successful completion of this project.

The women and children are critically anaemic, the study discovered. It claimed that the symptoms might be reduced with the right nutritional guidance from knowledgeable healthcare professionals. Every other month, they also planned to organise live online events where speakers will give specific talks on enhancing health.

C Lakshmana Rao from the Department of Applied Mechanics at IIT Madras said, “In pilot villages, a detailed baseline survey and mapping of health status and health expenses using IT tools was undertaken”.

“It was intended to address priority health issues through medical treatment and dietary advice and its monitoring using IT tools. A post-intervention survey and mapping of health status and health expenses using IT tools”, he further added.

In addition to this initiative, the team from IIT Madras will implement a mobile application to digitise the procedure and improve analysis. With the assistance of volunteer local kids, it will also raise awareness about the use of mobile applications.

IIT Madras will start the development of specialised drugs to treat particular illnesses like anaemia and frailty and encourage patients to adopt good habits at medical camps. It will also take further steps to examine the particular disease-based parameters and assess their suitability for additional medications and treatments. Collegedunia