Monitoring health: Fighting diseases with tech

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes and heart disease account for 63% mortality in India. Tackling this critical health issue warrants extensive collaboration and partnership. Towards this, Dell Technologies in collaboration with ministry of health and family welfare and Tata Trusts, has developed a mobile app for management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at government Primary Health Centres (PHCs). The app will strengthen the existing NCD IT system’s suite of six apps for Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), auxiliary nurse midwives, doctors, programme managers and health officials in the government. Minister for health and family welfare Harsh Vardhan said the new app will improve the screening and management of patients suffering from NCDs.

In 2018, Dell in collaboration with MoHFW and its ecosystem of partners created the NCD IT system, based on Dell’s Digital LifeCare and have worked together to scale it across 28 states and Union Territories to reach 496 districts across India. Over 75 million individuals have been enrolled in the system.

The NCD IT system supports the government’s population-based screening (PBS) and management of NCDs under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS). PBS tasks health workers with screening India’s population who are above the age of 30 years for five common NCDs namely hypertension, diabetes, oral, cervical and breast cancers.

The NCD IT system provides an e-referral pathway that allows individuals to be monitored and cared for as they visit doctors at government primary, secondary and district level hospitals for NCD management. A single, unique longitudinal health record for every individual on the government cloud allows healthcare providers to securely access and update patient information, as well as receive reminders and alerts guided by government protocols.
Alok Ohrie, president and managing director, Dell Technologies India said, “We believe in transforming lives with technology and aim to impact 1 billion lives globally by 2030.”