IIT Madras develops IT Tool to enhance health of rural SC community, Health News, ET HealthWorld

Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has developed an Information Technology tool to monitor and improve the health of rural Scheduled Caste (SC) communities in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The IT Tool, developed using open-source software, was deployed to gather detailed household-level annual health-related information.

This IT Tool was also utilized to make an objective assessment of the impact of medical treatment and dietary advice on priority health issues. This would lead to evolving an optimal rural healthcare plan based on treatment efficacy and expenses.

The project was implemented in E. Palaguttapalli SC and its adjoining hamlets, PakaJa Mandal and Pulicherla Mandal, in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh.

The doctor team from SV College of Ayurveda, Harnath Chary and Dr Gnana prasoonaamba visited the villages once in every two months and helped in the effective implementation of this project.

Elaborating on the current status of this project, Prof C. Lakshmana Rao, Department of Applied Mechanics, 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”.