A voluntary group of doctors and professionals in the US and India has launched an initiative to help healthcare workers in rural India.
The ‘Project Madad' will provide virtual, time-sensitive information to healthcare workers on treating Covid-19 patients, real-time details on hospital bed availability and counter vaccine misinformation.
The Madad team will initially work with Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) in rural Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, a statement said.
Initially, they focus on capacity building for rural healthcare workers, especially RMPs, channeled medical supplies and created social media campaigns and flyers in vernaculars to spread awareness.
They hope to scale up this model in other areas and assist healthcare workers to recognise Covid-19 symptoms, treat mild cases at homes and provide advice on vaccination, dangers of over medication and other best practices.
“When the Covid-19 crisis initially started, we noticed that rural India was not getting attention at all,” New York-based Raja Karthikeya, who leads the project, told PTI.
“Our goal is to address the majority of the population living in rural areas. We emphasised to RMPs that 80 per cent of people who contract Covid will do well. What you really want to do is decrease panic, take away people's fear and convert fear into carefulness,” said Minneapolis-based diagnostic radiology specialist Dr Subbarao Inampudi.
"A major focus for the team is to educate and counsel the RMPs on how they can prevent mild Covid cases from becoming moderate to severe and what to do when that happens. That is the key. Simple techniques, not drugs.With experience in Covid-19 treatment in the US garnered over the past year, we learned a lot, we made mistakes. We're not making those mistakes again. Hopefully we can share our experiences of what we did, what worked and what didn't."
The team connects with RMPs through Zoom on two designated days and time slots a week, dubbed the ‘Madad time'. The team has so far has interacted with over 150 RMPs through sessions, where any number of healthcare workers can join.
Since the doctors come from different disciplines such as immunology, gynecology, pediatrics, they are able to provide advice on a range of medical issues.
The 27-member Madad team has received requests from Uttarakhand and even Nepal, they said.
A hotline will be in place for RMPs to connect to the project's doctors in the US for advice at any time.
Hyderabad-based educationist Devishobha Chandramouli is leading the awareness component, Bengaluru-based consultant Kaivalya Gundu is managing vernacular outreach. The doctors' team includes immunologist Dr Rani Vatti, internal medicine specialist Dr Sailakshmi Tatikunta and palliative care specialist Dr Haritha Rachamallu from California.
The team has also developed an app, which will be launched next week, that gives real-time information on hospital bed availability and even identifies routes to get there quickly.
Its features include live chat through which RMPs will be able to reach out to doctors for questions about treatments and symptoms and get access to necessary guidelines, Karthikeya added.
“Our goal is to provide a one-stop-shop that can get you from identifying to clarifying your misinformation, to hopefully not needing to use this service of finding a hospital. But if that's the last resort, we want to provide you a safe way to get there," said Washington-based Dr Rajesh Anumolu, the architect of ‘MadadMaps'.
