On March 3, the Jammu and Kashmir government inaugurated the use of a device— called Swasthya Slate (SS), literally ‘health tablet’—that can potentially change how health care is administered in the country. The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was inaugurating the device, was so impressed by it that, while still on stage, he extended its use to eight districts with the worst health indicators, instead of the six planned.
The man behind the machine is Kanav Kahol (34), team leader of the Affordable Health Technologies Division at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). Since January 2012, Kahol and PHFI have been running pilot programmes, and J&K was the first instance of the SS being officially put to use.
The SS has two components: A 7- or 8-inch tablet, and a diagnostic box. The device runs diagnostic tests; in effect, taking the path lab to the patient. This is what makes SS a potential game changer for health care in India, parts of which have health indicators closer to sub-Saharan countries than to the developed world.
“Several states in India, and some foreign countries like Timor Leste, are in line to finalise the use of SS over the next six months,” says Kahol.
THE DEVICE
As of now, the SS can conduct 33 diagnostic tests, including commonly prescribed ones such as blood pressure and blood sugar, and more complicated tests like electrocardiograms or urine protein tests. The device is also capable of testing things like water quality in terms of suspended particles.
For each test there is a specific wire that connects the diagnostic box to the patient, or to the test sample. The number of these wires in a diagnostic box depends on the level of its sophistication, and the number of tests it is customised to perform. The test result is recorded by the diagnostic box, and is transmitted to the tablet via Bluetooth. The tablet, through an app, displays the result, and transmits it to a central database via a 3G connection.
Collection of medical data—essential in preventive health care—is grossly inadequate in India, which has traditionally focussed on curative health care, not preventive health care. With a woeful shortage of medical data—for instance, data on a type of cancer among Indians or, more specifically, women or urban women—doctors often find out about a disease only when it is too late. As of now, our doctors are often guided by what studies suggest about, say, Europeans or Americans. Collection of test results on a central server by the SS would, in time, help build this essential database.
Pilot programmes run by PHFI and its partners across several states in India, each with differing geographies and environment, show that the test results of the SS have 99.94 percent similarity to conventional equipment used by path labs.
The machine is handled by frontline health workers like ASHAs (accredited social health activists) who can now take the SS to remote areas and conduct tests at a fraction of the usual cost. In Andhra Pradesh, during the pilot programme last year, the government was charging just Rs 78 for a set of 10 tests, which would have cost about Rs 1,200 in an urban or semi-urban area,” says Kahol. Once the SS is used commercially, the cost of the tests will depend on the number of tests being conducted, and what each state government is willing to pay for the device. However, the cost will remain similar to the pilot programme’s, and be far lower than the average market cost.
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(This story appears in the 18 April, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
It is an excellent device as I found it in the net.i think it wii be an excellent device for the rural mass.may I desired to have one so where and how to get it,will you please guide me .
on Oct 21, 2014It is an an excellent tool for the rural health care providers, many many thanks to the dr who developed.i would like to have one, will you guide me where and how to get it?
on Oct 21, 2014