After installing the first digital ECG machine at Bamangam PHC in Anklav taluka, the group is set to equip three more PHCs in Anand and two in New Delhi with digital ECG machines next month.
VADODARA/ANANDA: A 42-year-old patient, who was attending a screening camp at Bamangam Primary Health Center (PHC) in Anklav taluka of Anand district, had no idea that he was suffering from chest pain and chest pain due to life-threatening heart attack. Suffers from shortness of breath. attack. The patient was immediately taken to GMERS Medical College and Hospital in Gotri, Vadodara for treatment of heart disease.
Patients like him are getting much-needed help through a project – Cardiogram – which aims to improve cardiovascular healthcare delivery in rural PHCs across the country.
A group of young interns and junior doctors have started a pilot project in Anand, which will be showcased as a model district before expanding to the state and national level, where each PHC is equipped with digital electrocardiogram (ECG) machines.
After installing the first digital ECG machine at Bamangam PHC in Anklav taluka, the group is set to equip three more PHCs in Anand and two in New Delhi with digital ECG machines next month.
“We aim to install 250 digital ECG machines within the next six months across five states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Assam,” said Dr Priyansh Shah, Founder and President, World Youth Heart Federation (WYHF). The non-profit social enterprise that has initiated the project.
“After establishing the model district of Anand, we will expand to over 24,000 rural primary health centers in the country. Gujarat itself has 1,500 rural primary health centers which will be the next milestone.
Like Priyansh, Dr Adnan Vohra and Dr Nidhi Shah — all intern doctors at state-run SSG Hospital in Vadodara are volunteering for the project with a team comprising Dr Pankti Shah, Dr Harshraj Vaghela, Dr Priyal Thakkar, Dr Keshav Shah, Dr Smit Shah , Dr Devarsh Shah and Dr Dhrumil Patil.
Nationally, the group has 600 volunteers consisting of interns and junior doctors in 58 cities. Initially, the group is using its own funds, but plans to scale up the initiative with a hyper-local model involving local businessmen and community leaders.
WYHF has already trained health workers in three PHCs and one Community Health Center in the Unclave. “During the screening camp at Bamangam, we found that six out of 71 patients needed treatment at higher centres. Three out of six patients were asymptomatic. The problem was identified only because of the digital ECG,” said Shah.
He said that deployment of ECG machines in PHCs would help diagnose many more such cases and save thousands of lives. Companies that manufacture digital ECG machines have their own mobile applications through which it becomes easy to send digital ECGs to cardiologists.
FacebookTwitterLinkedinE-mail
.