On top of emergency

We hardly have any control over emergencies, especially health-related ones, and the best we can do is to deal with them as swiftly as possible.

With this sense of urgency in mind, techies Umashankar Kotturu and Jagadish Vishwanatham started doctrz.com this March. This android app was adjudged the “best software product for creating social impact” at the recently concluded ITsAP Awards (IT and ITES Industry Association of AP) in the city.

With doctrz.com, patients can upload their health records on the app, update and share them with their consulting doctors. So, in times of distress, neither the patient nor the doctor has to sift through the paper records. It’s all on their smartphones.

Then, there’s also an emergency tracker integrated with a GPS. Umashankar, who takes care of client-coordination and strategies at the firm, explains, “In the event of an emergency, a patient in distress or any care giver can press a button on the app, that will delay the call by few seconds and notify an emergency service provider like 108 with the caller’s precise location, health and insurance information. This is a critical function. By January, we will be collaborating with the 108 service and this will take our services to 15 Indian states.”

The duo, with over 15 years of experience in Infosys, has carried out two pilot tests in the city and is ready with more.

Jagadish, who takes care of execution, says, “We were working with an NGO taking care of 200 terminally-ill cancer patients. It is attached to MNJ Hospital in Red Hills. During the last stage of cancer, patients are usually sent back home. So, the hospital identified nurses, sent them to check on the patients who, in turn, fed in their status in the app and sent it to their supervising senior. If the senior felt the urgency to administer a test or medicine, he would relay the information back to the nurse. We are also carrying out another pilot with Global Hospitals.”

“By 2014-end, we have to make our app multi-lingual. Because we want it to be used all over India, even by villagers. Otherwise, we plan to collaborate with NGOs in villages to extend the service,”  informs Umashankar.