New app developed at IISc to enhance disease data collection for BBMP

The AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) at IISc is developing an app that would help the BBMP collect accurate disease data from all private and government hospitals in the city.

There are around 1,000 private hospitals within the BBMP limits, but only around 400 are currently entering disease data in the central government’s Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), Dr K V Trilok Chandra, BBMP Special Commissioner (Health), told DH. Even for notifiable diseases like dengue, data is sparse.

Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar, programme director at ARTPARK, said that the app development is in the early stages.

Phase I of the app development focuses on PHCs, and Phase II on private hospitals and labs. In Phase I, the app enables ASHAs and ANMs to collect disease data from the community.

In an ongoing pilot now, around 15 ASHAs are collecting dengue data on the app. After this surveillance layer, the app will have a verification layer wherein medical officers will verify dengue cases or breeding spots. The third layer involves the fogging team reporting their source reduction activities across all breeding spots, on the app.

“Phase I would be deployed in a few months and, with this, we will have dengue data from all PHCs in one place. We are trying to launch the ASHA (surveillance) application immediately as we can’t lose out on the dengue season,” Dr Rajakumar said.

In Phase II, private hospitals and labs will be included in the app so that they can report cases. “The data filled by one establishment will flow to everyone else, so there will be no duplication,” Dr Rajakumar added.

Each category will have role-based access.

For example, the lab will enter details of the dengue sample only; the hospital will enter details of the patient’s condition; and the BBMP will give details of the larval or fever survey linked with that patient.

The application will first be deployed for dengue, and then for all communicable and non-communicable diseases. “Getting private entities on board is a big challenge. We have had multiple discussions with organisations like the Indian Medical Association regarding this. In the next stage, we may include individual clinics, too, in the app,” Dr Chandra said.