The Shruti Program is a good case study of a low-cost solution for early detection of ear infection to prevent hearing loss using mobile health technology.
It is a partnership among Medtronic, ClickMedix, international partnership for innovative healthcare delivery and partner sites in India.
The key components of this program include:
- Addresses a clearly defined unmet need of early detection of ear infection in areas that are lack of direct access to diagnostic facilities
- Provides a cost-effective technical solution with a cellphone-based otoscope that enable local screening by trained health workers and remote consultation by specialists
- Builds an eco-system of community-based screening clinic, standardized screening, and patient care coordination after screening.
This model can work for many other prevalent conditions such as congenital heart diseases, retinopathy, and obstructive sleep apnea.
It is always important for these models that aimed for providing community-based screening to examine its validity for both sensitivity and impact of false positives in the early stage of development.
They are the solutions to serve the bottom of pyramid.
