Providing telemedicine in rural areas in india

Providing telemedicine in rural areas in india
Mélanie Marcel1, Eloïse Szmatula1, Francisco Lage2, André Camargo2, Vijay Aditya3 & Emmanuel Fort2,4
1 Soscience, Paris, France, www.soscience.org
Projets Scientifiques en Equipe, ESPCI ParisTech, Paris, France, www.espci.fr
3 Ekgaon, C.E.O. of Ekgaon, New Delhi, India, www.ekgaon.org
3 AXA-ESPCI chair professor, Institut Langevin, ESPCI ParisTech/CNRS, Paris, France
2
Abstract
Résumé
This project is a collaboration between ESPCI engineering school,
SoScience, a start-up committed to scientific innovation for social good
and Ekgaon, a social company that develops technologies and information
systems to meet the needs of developing communities. This project aims
at providing telemedicine to rural populations in India via mobile services.
We work on a small device that would communicate with the mobile
phone, take the most important vital measures for diseases characterized
in these rural areas and allow doctors located in cities to make a
diagnosis.
Ce projet est une collaboration entre l’école d’ingénieur ESPCI ParisTech,
SoScience, une start-up impliquée dans l'innovation scientifique à but
social et Ekgaon, une entreprise sociale qui développe des technologies
et systèmes d'information pour répondre aux besoins des communautés
en développement. Ce projet vise à fournir l’accès à la télémédecine aux
populations rurales en Inde via les services mobiles. Nous travaillons sur
un petit appareil connecté à un téléphone portable permettant de relever
des mesures vitales liées aux maladies endémiques des zones rurales afin
de permettre aux médecins situés dans des villes d’établir un diagnostic à
distance.
Consortium partners
Ekgaon is a social enterprise focused on providing
utility services for farmers, rural businesses, underserved rural women and the large urban migrant labour
population of aspiring consumer. Co-founded in 2002,
by Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya, it is the first company to
provide mobile phone enabled financial services
delivery platform in South Asia. The company has 40
employees and is headquarters in New Delhi with its
regional office in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and Mandla
(Madhya Pradesh) in India. The company has developed
Integrated products and services for rural markets in
agriculture and financial services platform, and Market
Linkage Services Platform. Ekgaon services have
enriched lives of over one million rural households in
India and aims to reach 25 million households by year
2020.
SoScience! is a pioneering start-up company,
specialising in responsible research. We bring
together social entrepreneurs and scientists to
tackle today’s social and environmental
challenges.
Responsible research is a new way to approach
scientific research and development. We believe
that science can change the world, and that both
companies and public laboratories need to see
research in a more socially responsible light.
ESPCI ParisTech is a major institution of higher
education, an internationally renowned research
center, and a fertile ground of innovation for
industry. For over a century the School has attracted
leading scientific innovators like Nobel Prize
laureates Pierre and Marie Curie, Paul Langevin,
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, and Georges Charpak, who
continue to contribute to the institution’s
international reputation.
A new teaching program started in 2014 dedicated to
the realization of original and innovative scientific
projects often in partnership with research
institutions, associations or companies. This project
falls within the scope of this framework.
Project
Lack of doctors in rural India:
Rural India is largely deprived of a medical workforce because allopathic doctors—who have at least a 5·5 year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of
Surgery degree—prefer urban settings. In 2011, primary health-care centres in villages faced a 12% shortfall in physicians. The country's 148 124
sub-centres, which are the closest stops for primary care for people living in villages, are currently only manned by midwives. During the past
decade, many expert committees have advocated deploying mid-level health-care workers primarily at sub-centres. The Lancet, 5 October 2013
Use of telemedicine to connect doctors and patients
Endemic diseases:
Local data acquisition:
Remote diagnostics:
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea,
hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vector borne diseases: dengue fever, Japanese
encephalitis, and malaria
water contact disease: leptospirosis
animal contact disease: rabies
…
Midwives or nurses perform locally the
vital and meaningful measures
associated to endemic diseases using a
specifically designed apparatus
interfaced with a smartphone.
From the data sent by smartphones, a
reliable diagnostics can be made by
doctors in medical centers and
hospitals located in towns.
This project is funded by:
This project is at his infancy, we still have many medical and technical issues to tackle.
If you think you can help us, please do not hesitate to contact us:
[email protected] / [email protected]