Intelehealth | Healthcare App to cater to primary healthcare in Rural India

The statistics were never really inspiring. India has just 1 doctor to cater to approximately 1,700 people. However, even that figure is misleading. While 70% of the country’s population lives in rural areas, less than 40% of the healthcare infrastructure is. This obviously creates several gaps in putting together a cohesive (and inclusive) healthcare program. The chief among which is access to qualified and trained healthcare professionals.

There are indeed health workers available in rural and remote areas. However, these are little more than semi-skilled nursing professionals. They can offer basic first aid and simple administrations. They have neither the qualifications nor the competence to offer tests and consults on things even as simple as diabetes and asthma. As a result, patients either avoid going to primary healthcare facilities – or more commonly – get over the counter medication without prescriptions from pharmacists who function as pseudo-doctors in underserved communities.

The result is an almost-complete breakdown of access to healthcare among communities of people who need it the most. Clearly an untenable proposition and something that hampers the very growth and development of the nation and its manpower resource.

Which is why, it comes as a blessing when students at the Johns Hopkins University created an App that lets rural health workers act as proxy for doctors who are unable to work in the underserved communities themselves. Titled “Intelehealth” the App aims to digitize the way in which primary healthcare is currently delivered across the length and breadth of the country.

How it works

The current rural health workers have been trained to operate the App. When a patient comes to a primary healthcare center, first their symptoms are noted and photographed. Demographic data is compiled about them and pertinent lifestyle, cultural and dietary information is gathered. This data is sent to qualified Healthcare professionals (usually retired doctors) living in urban areas who go through the information and revert with a diagnosis and recommended course of treatment. When required, a prescriptions is also sent along.

This makes the rural patients more confident that they are getting access to quality care – for a fraction of the price. When they see better outcomes for themselves and others in their community, they are more likely and willing to report health issues to gain care advantages.

Primary benefits

First and foremost Intelehealth fills a need in the market for affordable, quality, reliable healthcare. The fundamental gap it fills is that of access. The peripheral issues it tackles are wide-ranging. Patients in rural or remote areas can now access diagnoses from qualified healthcare professionals without having to travel long distances spending money they can ill-afford to spend. This makes them more likely to access healthcare and not delay symptoms that could result in more dangerous diseases if left untreated.

Larger Benefits

Intelehealth also functions as a epidemiological resource. When the gathered patient data is collected and encrypted, some of it can be anonymized and used in research. This can range from identifying the health profiles of specific areas to tracking the spread of disease over larger geographical regions. This is something that is currently unavailable in the market. The conventional means of data collection, collation and distribution are heavily manpower-reliant and lack of access to qualified and trained healthcare professionals makes it more of an administrative exercise with no healthcare outcomes.

Intelehealth however is much more than a simple tele-medicine App. The lack of bandwidth prevents solutions like that from being deployed. Hence the team worked on a solution that uses low bandwidth. It is currently available as an Android-based solution. Similarly the functionality of the App was geared towards collecting, disseminating and securing diagnoses in the fastest time possible. So bells and whistles typically found in Apps of this nature were also ditched to function well within the low bandwidth

Pilot studies were conducted at two location in West Bengal and the product will soon be launched in other parts of India. The App itself is free for anyone to use. It is currently in Beta mode and will be officially launched by year end. To cater to organizations who want Intelehealth to manage and train health workers, they have a separate program. After India, the target areas include SouthEast Asia and Africa – regions with similar challenges. Here’s more power to the people behind this really useful healthcare App!