Telemedicine and Primary Health Care

Sponsorship: This was partly funded by generous seed gifts from Kirit Shah and Bipin Kapadia

Background: Sukarma Telemedicine Primary Health Care Center – Mehragaon is located in Maya’s home village of Mehragaon, Madhya Pradesh. It serves nearby villages, too – an approximate population of 2500 patients per month.

Project Scope, Goals and Desired Outcomes:

In India, there is huge inequality in health-care distribution, where nearly 75% of Indians live in rural villages and more than 75% of Indian doctors are based in cities. The Indian government spends just 0.9% of the country’s annual gross domestic product on health, and a fairly limited amount reaches remote rural villages. Poor villagers try to wait out the illness and when it becomes unbearable, they spend most of their savings on travel to specialty hospitals in cities and for staying in those cities during treatment. In addition, due to transport being inadequate, people have to spend several hours to reach a qualified physician in the semi-rural area. Many quacks take advantage of the situation and provide dangerous, often life-threatening drugs and/or shots, resulting in serious complications including death.

To combat this dire scenario, a solution, in the form of telemedicine, developed by MedOnGo Inc, was unveiled. It bridges the gap between rural and urban healthcare.

Telemedicine: For Sulochana Devi, taking 1,000 INR from her household budget to travel to the nearest city for medical treatment was difficult. It meant that she will probably not have money for enough food the rest of the month. Something as basic as primary health care that we take for granted is something Sulochana Devi fervently prays for.
The lack of a primary health care centre has resulted in many sick people risking death while waiting it out, or spend all their savings to travel to the city for a diagnosis of a simple affliction and its treatment.

Sukarma Foundation is changing that reality: Using advances in technology and with the help of the passionate and humane doctors in Jaipur, a city in India, Sukarma Foundation has started a telemedicine centre in Mehergaon, a remote village in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh. With over 250 patients in the past six months, the telemedicine centre has proved to be a boon for families that worried about the costs of basic health and fought the risk of an empty stomach.

Using Technology, Spirit, and Good Intentions for Basic Healthcare

The marvels of technology in the form of medical software and mobile internet have allowed doctors from an urban city hundreds of miles away to connect with illness-ridden villagers of Narsinghpur, Raisen and Hoshangabad districts. The technology and protocols developed by MedOnGo Inc. India, comply with all national laws and guidelines to ensure best practices.
Let us illustrate how the telemedicine centre helps a villager get the medical help they need.
When Roshni, a 10-year old girl starts coughing incessantly and spikes a fever, she is taken to the telemedicine centre by her parents. A woman trained in General Nursing Midwifery (GNM) checks Roshni’s vitals such as pulse, temperature, and blood sugar. Essential diagnostic kits for common diseases and deficiencies are also used. All this information is transmitted in real time to the doctors.
Next, a highly experienced doctor consulting from an urban area reads the information on the dashboard and through live video chat, asks Roshni follow-up questions. Once the doctor is certain of the condition, he or she uses the medical platform to send a prescription.
The telemedicine centre prints the prescription. Roshni’s parents use the unique bar code on the prescription to get the appropriate medication from the vending machine installed within the telemedicine centre.
Thus, Roshni is able to get the medical help she needs at one-tenth the cost. Her parents do not have to worry about who will take care of their other child, the fields, or the house if they have to visit the city for treatment.

This telemedicine solution was partly funded by generous gifts from Kirit Shah and Bipin Kapadia.

The telemedicine centre doesn’t simply ensure basic medical help. It ensures peace of mind for hundreds of families.

How can YOU help Roshni and thousands more?

  • Costs of running the telemedicine centre on a not-for-profit yet self-sustainable model include:
  • Electricity expenses
  • Medicine costs
  • Maintenance of medical software
  • Salary of nurse and doctor
  • Procuring an iBreastExam machine

In 2019, along with the Health and Care Foundation, we conducted a medical camp in Narsinghpur district aimed at identifying women with breast cancer. We used a US FDA approved non-invasive, radiation-free, small portable device for breast examination called iBreastExam. On examining 300 women, our health workers identified six positive cases of women who had lumps or hard tissue around the breast area. Over two days, hundreds of women got a chance for early detection. Those who tested positive were counselled and referred to the nearest specialist.
The women of Narsinghpur district will greatly benefit from accessing this service. For that we need your help to procure an iBreastExam machine which costs $____. It will facilitate early diagnosis of breast cancer in women of these villages and get them timely help.

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