An app developed by an early stage startup is making the job easier for community health workers in Telangana to identify, register, track, monitor and report health condition of those home quarantined for coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms.
The ‘COVID-19 Monitoring System’ app of Vera Smart Healthcare, the startup, was deployed by the State Public Health and Family Welfare Department recently. This has been done to identify such people, undertake live surveillance, track, monitor, and provide real-time analytics to the Chief Minister and the Health Department, a release from the startup said.
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Over 5,000 ASHA and ANM workers are using the app and feed information to the around 4,800 PHC sub-centres that in turn pass the same to the 886 public health centres. Thereafter, the data flows to the District Medical Health Office and from there, to the department.
The release quoted Director of Public Health G. Srinivas Rao saying that the COVID Monitoring System is a timely technology innovation which helps in effective surveillance and deploys a “meticulous tech-enabled method” to collate vital data. From the polity, bureaucracy to the frontline ASHA and ANM workers, the app can be accessed by different associates.
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Commending Vera Smart Healthcare for developing the app in three days, Dr. Rao said the monitoring system helps avoid human errors thus providing accurate information. The system helped in tracking and monitoring the foreign returnees as well as those hospitalised, he said.
Founder and CEO of Vera Healthcare Dharma Teja Nukarapu said, “Our technology is based on IoT, Smart devices, GPS and Geotag. The app has been installed on the phones of all concerned, from the ground level till the Chief Minister’s Office”. The features of the app include geotagging and GPS tracking of the home quarantined person to ensure that he/she is not breaching the guidelines.
“With instant trace and trackability, accurate information is pushed to the authorities even if there is a breach. Every detail reported reaches the Chief Minister’s Office through updates from the ASHA worker, doctor, police or the bureaucrat concerned,” he added. The startup, he said, is now readying to release a batch of ‘Smart Patch’ that tags the patient geographically, monitors and disseminates information about his or her real-time health progress.
Vera Smart Healthcare, which has offices in Hyderabad and the US, had earlier helped create detailed health profiles of more than 50,000 people in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
