The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has created an information technology tool to track and improve the health of rural Scheduled Caste (SC) communities in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. The IT Tool, which was created with open-source software, was used to collect detailed household-level annual health-related data.
This IT Tool was also used to conduct an objective evaluation of the impact of medical treatment and dietary advice on priority health issues. This would result in the development of an optimal rural healthcare plan based on treatment efficacy and costs.
The project was carried out in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, in E. Palaguttapalli SC and its neighbouring hamlets, PakaJa Mandal and Pulicherla Mandal.
The SV College of Ayurveda doctor team, Harnath Chary and Dr Gnana prasoonaamba, visited the villages once every two months and assisted 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”.
