Information Society Innovation Fund
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Capacity building of Lady Health Workers in Rural Mardan, NWFP through the use of ICT-based Tele-healthcare. NUST, Pakistan: 13

Project background and justification

Access to medical specialists, of which there are about 200 different types, is largely limited to the developed world. For developing economies, especially rural areas, this medical expertise is either non-existent or limited to large urban centers resulting in millions of people dying each year from treatable conditions (WHO).

Waiting room at UM-Trust Facility Pakistan is also faced with inadequate and inefficient primary healthcare facilities in rural/remote areas due mainly to the unavailability of doctors and lack of resources. Currently, there is only 1 doctor for every 2000 people, twice that of the recommended WHO ratio of 1 in 1,000. Most doctors are urban-based whereas 75 per cent of the population resides in rural areas. Consequently, the only available medical access for rural patients are the LHWs. They tend to treat diseases for which they are inadequately trained therefore require a specialist’s opinion. More often than not, these specialists are difficult to contact.

It is estimated that 80 per cent of all deaths and 90 per cent of all illnesses in Pakistan result from diseases that are preventable [3]. We believe that this percentage can easily be decreased by early diagnosis, awareness, and affordable regular treatment provided through properly utilized ICT technologies and empowerment of LHWs in the use of these technologies.

Although ICT infrastructure is now in place, there is no value-added service or application to utilize this network. Furthermore, there is no central authority where these LHWs can call and get medical support from doctors and specialists. Our proposed project utilizes this network of LWHs by collecting unique data about patients in rural Pakistan. This data can be stored and expert opinion can be obtained from specialists either in major Pakistani cities or in the US. Our first site chosen to implement this project is a healthcare facility in the rural Mardan district in the NWFP province.

Our goal is to devise newer and effective ways for bringing a rapid change to healthcare for rural communities. The mission of this project is to dramatically lower the cost of delivering care by leveraging ICTs to deliver, medical expertise, remotely. Jaroka will provide an Internet-based and mobile-ready, tele-medicine network that will connect clinicians and LHWs in Mardan with specialists in major cities of Pakistan and USA.

Project summary

Pakistan is experiencing an acute shortage of qualified healthcare specialists and adequate health facilities in rural areas of the country. For a population of over 160 million Pakistanis, there are only 110,000 registered medical doctors and only 1,000 government-run hospitals. Furthermore, Pakistan has one of the highest rural infant (86.8/1000) and maternal mortality (170.8/1000) in the Asia Pacific region.

BLSTraining2 (Giving lectures on life supporiitng activities) The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 70 per cent of Pakistanis never see a doctor their entire lives and instead rely on Lady Health Workers (LHW) for their medical needs. LHW are government-trained healthcare workers who operate out of their homes in rural areas of Pakistan providing primary and maternal care. There are over 100,000 such healthcare workers in Pakistan, each responsible for a community of about 1,000 in their neighbourhood.

Our project aims to utilize mobile platforms to extend tele-healthcare based services in rural Mardan. This will include Short Messaging Service (SMS), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), GPRS/Edge and VSAT to quickly and efficiently extend medical advice to LHW in the field by connecting them to our network of specialists. This will enable LHW to provide quality healthcare to the community. Further they can download short audio and video files to keep them abreast with latest medical advances. These multimedia files will also act as quick training sessions for LHW in the field.


We aim to train 50 LHW in the Mardan district over the next year. Once it is successfully deployed in Mardan, we shall replicate it in other districts of Pakistan.

Organization profile

The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (SEECS), part of the NUST Institute of Information Technology is one of the world leaders in engineering education and research.

Besides successfully running undergraduate programs in IT, telecommunication and electronics engineering, the institute also conducts an MS IT program, and is poised soon start an MS program in CSE. In recognition of NIIT’s proven academic and research credentials, NIIT was recently renamed as SEECS. This new name synchronizes with the stature of the institute by providing high quality education in electrical and computer disciplines.

The institute boasts having on its premises some of the world class laboratories which notably include an IBM- NIIT Linux Competency Center; a Center for High Performance Scientific computing; a CERN Research Lab; a Caltech Research Lab; a Network Technologies Research Lab; a Wireless Networks Research Lab; an Information Security Lab; a Center of Excellence for FPGAs, and an ASIC Research Lab.

For more information about NUST-SEECS, visit: http://www.nust.edu.pk/

Comments

/groups/isif/search/index.rss?tag=hotlist/groups/isif/search/?tag=hotWhat’s HotHotListHot!?tag=hot9/groups/isif/sidebar/HotListsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-11-24 05:47:03+00:002011-11-24 05:47:03updated12sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-29 11:49:52+00:002011-09-29 11:49:52updated11sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-29 11:49:03+00:002011-09-29 11:49:03updated10sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-29 11:47:51+00:002011-09-29 11:47:51updated9sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-29 11:47:20+00:002011-09-29 11:47:20updated8sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:38:27+00:002011-09-27 12:38:27updated7sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:38:12+00:002011-09-27 12:38:12updated6sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:32:21+00:002011-09-27 12:32:21updated5Added tag - awardsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:30:13+00:002011-09-27 12:30:13addTag4Added tag - hotsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:30:10+00:002011-09-27 12:30:10addTag3sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:30:01+00:002011-09-27 12:30:01updated2First createdsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-27 12:29:39+00:002011-09-27 12:29:39created1wiki2011-11-24T05:47:03+00:00groups/isif/wiki/7fd93FalseAwards ceremony at the 6th IGF in Nairobi/groups/isif/wiki/7fd93/Awards_ceremony_at_the_6th_IGF_in_Nairobi.htmlSylvia Cadena12 updatesAwards ceremony at the 6th IGF in Nairobi [Winners] The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is an annual meeting on global Internet policy, in a multi-stakeholder environment. The theme ...Falsesylvia2011-11-24T05:47:03+00:00Added tag - hotsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 06:17:46+00:002011-09-01 06:17:46addTag9sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 05:24:21+00:002011-09-01 05:24:21updated8sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 05:13:34+00:002011-09-01 05:13:34updated7sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 05:13:12+00:002011-09-01 05:13:12updated6sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 05:09:17+00:002011-09-01 05:09:17updated5sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 05:08:42+00:002011-09-01 05:08:42updated4sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 04:50:34+00:002011-09-01 04:50:34updated3sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 04:32:05+00:002011-09-01 04:32:05updated2First createdsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-09-01 04:29:24+00:002011-09-01 04:29:24created1wiki2011-09-01T05:24:21+00:00groups/isif/wiki/b1c52FalseISIF Award 2011 – Celebrating the achievement of innovators in the AP region /groups/isif/wiki/b1c52/ISIF_Award_2011__Celebrating_the_achievement_of_innovators_in_the_AP_region_.htmlSylvia Cadena9 updatesISIF Award 2011 – Celebrating the achievement of innovators in the AP region Local organizations committed with the socio economic development of their communities have been deploying ICT technologies in innovative ways across ...Falsesylvia2011-09-01T05:24:21+00:00sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-23 02:40:42+00:002011-08-23 02:40:42updated5sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-23 02:40:12+00:002011-08-23 02:40:12updated4sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-23 02:29:47+00:002011-08-23 02:29:47updated3Added tag - hotsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-23 02:28:16+00:002011-08-23 02:28:16addTag2First createdsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-23 02:28:12+00:002011-08-23 02:28:12created1wiki2011-08-23T02:40:42+00:00groups/isif/wiki/fdbd2FalseSmall grants, inspiring innovation: a program review/groups/isif/wiki/fdbd2/Small_grants_inspiring_innovation_a_program_review.htmlSylvia Cadena5 updatesSmall grants, inspiring innovation: a program review[cover.jpg] This booklet provides a comprehensive review of the ISIF Program from 2008 to 2011. The program seeks to expand its activities in the f...Falsesylvia2011-08-23T02:40:42+00:00sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-19 00:30:54+00:002011-08-19 00:30:54updated45sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-19 00:30:39+00:002011-08-19 00:30:39updated44sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:44:01+00:002011-08-18 02:44:01updated43Added tag - hotsylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:44:00+00:002011-08-18 02:44:00addTag42Added tag - 2010sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:41:10+00:002011-08-18 02:41:10addTag41Added tag - 2009sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:41:08+00:002011-08-18 02:41:08addTag40Added tag - 2010 reportssylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:40:57+00:002011-08-18 02:40:57addTag39Added tag - 2009 reportssylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:40:52+00:002011-08-18 02:40:52addTag38sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:27:12+00:002011-08-18 02:27:12updated37sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-18 02:24:52+00:002011-08-18 02:24:52updated36sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-16 07:02:34+00:002011-08-16 07:02:34updated35sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-16 06:55:23+00:002011-08-16 06:55:23updated34sylviaSylvia Cadena2011-08-16 06:50:08+00:002011-08-16 06:50:08updated33sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2011-07-15 06:06:44+00:002011-07-15 06:06:44updated32sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2011-02-16 09:02:18+00:002011-02-16 09:02:18updated31Removed tag - 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about supported projectssylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2009-04-23 23:46:18+00:002009-04-23 23:46:18addTag2First additionsylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2009-04-23 23:45:18+00:002009-04-23 23:45:18created1wiki2011-08-19T00:30:54+00:00groups/isif/wiki/c5d68FalseGrant Recipients/groups/isif/wiki/c5d68/Grant_Recipients.htmlSylvia Cadena45 updatesGrant Recipients The ISIF report strategy encourage grant recipients to documents their project activities in a variety of formats to share the knowledge and expe...Falsesylvia2011-08-19T00:30:54+00:00sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-28 01:07:23+00:002008-04-28 01:07:23updated10Added tag - aboutsylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-28 01:07:20+00:002008-04-28 01:07:20addTag9sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-08 03:24:57+00:002008-04-08 03:24:57updated8Removed tag - hotsylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-08 03:24:55+00:002008-04-08 03:24:55removeTag7sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-08 03:07:57+00:002008-04-08 03:07:57updated6sylviacadenaSylvia Cadena2008-04-08 02:55:35+00:002008-04-08 02:55:35updated5Added tag - 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To maintain and diversify support for ICT and Internet related research & deve...Falsesylviacadena2011-02-16T09:01:20+00:00hot/groups/isif/search/index.rss?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcomelist/groups/isif/search/?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcomeRecent ChangesRecentChangesListUpdates?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcome0/groups/isif/sidebar/RecentChangesListmodifiedDateallRecent ChangesRecentChangesListUpdateswiki/welcomeNo recent changes.reverse5search