Polyclinic: An effort to digitise patient medical history in rural India

This article has been contributed by Aryaman Kunzru, a graduate from the Canadian International School of Hong Kong.

A patient’s medical history is made up of several different components that tell the complete story about that individual’s past and current health. However, with a doctor to patient ratio of 1:1800 in India, most doctors are unable to spend a significant amount of time with each patient, or personally track and monitor patient medical history -- a crucial component when it comes to correct diagnosis and treatment.

Digitising medical records requires immense and expensive IT infrastructure, which developing countries such as India, typically do not have the financial or the technical resources to ensure widespread distribution of EMRs (Electronic Medical Record Systems).

As such, the need for a low cost solution, for both patients and doctors, has never been higher. And so, I decided to create a platform -- PolyClinic --  that would digitise patient medical history in Indian rural medical centres, initially by providing a cost-efficient and resource-efficient web application to store any patient’s medical records, and with the end goal of ensuring that the transferral of a patient’s medical history is as easy as the swipe of a card.

PolyClinic is currently being piloted in clinics in India. The current version operates at 16 per cent the cost of any comparable system, is web-based, and voice-activated -- allowing the time-pressed doctors to work more efficiently.