AIIMS launches app to help physicians in rural India provide quality care to stroke patients
New Delhi Oct 29 PTI The neurology department of the AIIMS has launched a mobile application SMART-India App as part of a research project aimed at helping physicians at district-level hospitals provide quality care to stroke patients One of the major challenges is to deliver adequate healthcare in rural India where more than two-thirds of Indias population live There is severe shortage of specialists in rural areas with one of the lowest physicianpopulation ratios in the world Dr M V Padma Srivastava chief of Neurosciences Centre at AIIMS said There is only one neurologist per 125 million population Dr Vishnu V Y Associate Professor of Neurology at AIIMS said Two innovative solutions to this problem include training physicians at district hospital to diagnose and manage acute stroke stroke physician model or use low-cost telestroke model We developed the SMART-India App with a primary purpose of providing a low-cost telestroke services of a neurologist and physiotherapist to physicians in district hospitals Besides two other stroke-related initiatives — IMPETUS and CARE-DAT — were also launched to improve the quality of life of disabled persons who have suffered a stroke through newer technological advances World Stroke Day is observed on October 29 Centre for Advanced Research and Excellence in Disability and Assistive Technology CARE-DAT is a joint research project developed by AIIMS-New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Technology IIT Delhi to study the role of assistive technologies in optimizing functional recovery post stroke with special emphasis on hand function and its validation of sustenance and long-term clinical impact said Dr Suhas Murali who is doing stroke fellowship at AIIMS Stroke is the second leading cause of chronic disability and mortality with 102 million disability adjusted life years lost annually The estimated adjusted prevalence rate of stroke reported a range of 84 to 262100000 population in rural and 334-424100000 in urban India Dr Murali said Physiotherapy services post stroke are long term costly and need resilience from both patients and therapists The burden on hospitals is humongous to provide enough room and equipments for stroke patients The objectives of this research are to design low-cost exoskeleton and piezoelectric hand gloves for improvement of upper limb function after stroke and to develop virtual reality module and to evaluate the clinical impact on upper limb rehabilitation Dr Srivastava said IMPETUS is an implementation research project that aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing a uniform stroke care pathway in medical colleges of India and improving stroke care Dr Rohit Bhatia Professor Department of Neurology at AIIMS said The study will be conducted in selected medical colleges across the country and is intended to examine the changes in a select set of stroke care related indicators over time within the sites exposed to the same implementation strategy During the implementation phase education and training about the standard stroke care pathway will be provided to all stakeholders of implementing sites Patient level outcomes will be collected throughout the study The first-of-its-kind study aims to implement a thoroughly designed package of stroke interventions including recognition and triaging in emergency rapid and timely evaluation and treatment stroke etiological evaluation in-hospital care patient education caregiver mentoring and adequate secondary prevention strategies and rehabilitation in medical colleges Dr Bhatia said Since the number of neurologists are limited and medicine specialists play a vital role in medical colleges this study is the first-of-its-kind systematic effort to train non-neurology medical specialists in medical colleges towards optimized acute stroke care This is the first of the study to help strengthen skilled and trained manpower in medical colleges to impart best available stroke care to patients Dr Bhatia said The study will help generate evidence on practicalities of implementing the uniform standard stroke care pathways across various medical colleges he said PTI PLB SMN SMN
New Delhi Oct 29 PTI The neurology department of the AIIMS has launched a mobile application SMART-India App as part of a research project aimed at helping physicians at district-level hospitals provide quality care to stroke patients One of the major challenges is to deliver adequate healthcare in rural India where more than two-thirds of Indias population live There is severe shortage of specialists in rural areas with one of the lowest physicianpopulation ratios in the world Dr M V Padma Srivastava chief of Neurosciences Centre at AIIMS said There is only one neurologist per 125 million population Dr Vishnu V Y Associate Professor of Neurology at AIIMS said Two innovative solutions to this problem include training physicians at district hospital to diagnose and manage acute stroke stroke physician model or use low-cost telestroke model We developed the SMART-India App with a primary purpose of providing a low-cost telestroke services of a neurologist and physiotherapist to physicians in district hospitals Besides two other stroke-related initiatives — IMPETUS and CARE-DAT — were also launched to improve the quality of life of disabled persons who have suffered a stroke through newer technological advances World Stroke Day is observed on October 29 Centre for Advanced Research and Excellence in Disability and Assistive Technology CARE-DAT is a joint research project developed by AIIMS-New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Technology IIT Delhi to study the role of assistive technologies in optimizing functional recovery post stroke with special emphasis on hand function and its validation of sustenance and long-term clinical impact said Dr Suhas Murali who is doing stroke fellowship at AIIMS Stroke is the second leading cause of chronic disability and mortality with 102 million disability adjusted life years lost annually The estimated adjusted prevalence rate of stroke reported a range of 84 to 262100000 population in rural and 334-424100000 in urban India Dr Murali said Physiotherapy services post stroke are long term costly and need resilience from both patients and therapists The burden on hospitals is humongous to provide enough room and equipments for stroke patients The objectives of this research are to design low-cost exoskeleton and piezoelectric hand gloves for improvement of upper limb function after stroke and to develop virtual reality module and to evaluate the clinical impact on upper limb rehabilitation Dr Srivastava said IMPETUS is an implementation research project that aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing a uniform stroke care pathway in medical colleges of India and improving stroke care Dr Rohit Bhatia Professor Department of Neurology at AIIMS said The study will be conducted in selected medical colleges across the country and is intended to examine the changes in a select set of stroke care related indicators over time within the sites exposed to the same implementation strategy During the implementation phase education and training about the standard stroke care pathway will be provided to all stakeholders of implementing sites Patient level outcomes will be collected throughout the study The first-of-its-kind study aims to implement a thoroughly designed package of stroke interventions including recognition and triaging in emergency rapid and timely evaluation and treatment stroke etiological evaluation in-hospital care patient education caregiver mentoring and adequate secondary prevention strategies and rehabilitation in medical colleges Dr Bhatia said Since the number of neurologists are limited and medicine specialists play a vital role in medical colleges this study is the first-of-its-kind systematic effort to train non-neurology medical specialists in medical colleges towards optimized acute stroke care This is the first of the study to help strengthen skilled and trained manpower in medical colleges to impart best available stroke care to patients Dr Bhatia said The study will help generate evidence on practicalities of implementing the uniform standard stroke care pathways across various medical colleges he said PTI PLB SMN SMN
