Health profiling: A catalyst for diagnosis

The Health Profiling Policy implemented by the Telangana State government can be a catalyst for diagnosis of health problems.

In addition to diagnosing common diseases, health profiling can be useful in recording the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of problematic, infectious and chronic diseases, as well as addressing preventive measures.

The government of Telangana State has designed and devised this programme in a manner that helps improving the healthcare facilities in the rural parts of the State. Health related factors play a major role in this list of basic needs.

Governments are undertaking infrastructure development in the developing areas at this stage. In terms of the importance of identifying the health needs of the people, the government headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is taking care of the important schemes like the health profiling.

The State of Telangana has been in the forefront of implementing and devising innovative schemes and concepts. The leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is fully aware of every issue and the government is giving a comprehensive governance to the people.

It was in this context that the Chief Minister considered a comprehensive plan to empower the people on health related issues.

Telangana is all the more concerned with healthcare in the same way as it implemented a comprehensive family survey (Samagra Kutumba Survey) and it is attempting to achieve a planned development.

There are many health hazards in our State that are haunting the rural parts of the State. Particularly in the remote corners and distant terrains, in the forest and tribal belt, the health problems confronted by the people are causing serious concern.

Though there is no major outbreak of epidemics in the recent years, the healthcare monitoring process in the remote corners has remained a far cry.

Certain symptoms of prolonged ailments in different professions vary from each other. People engaged in certain professions are prone to diseases that require proper attention.

Regional-wise, a population-based programme of fluorosis-prone villages in Nalgonda district could be devised and a planned treatment programme could be implemented.

There is also the possibility of respiratory diseases spreading to certain occupational groups such as weaving community, stone crushing workers and the granite industries.

The ability to suggest therapeutic strategies when they are extended to a group or to a few individuals is possible when health profiling is comprehensive.

Health profiling makes it possible for people in the fluorosis-affected villages to undergo various tests of the salinity of water, as well as their physiological characteristics when infected with various diseases.

In some villages of the old district of Warangal, the occurrence of diseases like pailaria is still evident. Health profiling can also help you get the health details of those patients.

Comprehensive health tables can also be gathered about common diseases caused by malnutrition. Health profiling can also include details of people suffering from respiratory infections in some occupational situations.

Importantly, beedi workers and weavers face respiratory illness problems as they breathe the remains of their work. In addition to this, there is a health history of some areas like Silicosis and Asbestosis as a consequence of industrialisation.

The social health profile process is made up of health resource indicators, assessing sociodemographic characteristics, health status, quality of life, and health risk factors; These indicators primarily collect detailed information.

It is also useful for capturing certain health symptoms about a person. The process of getting a user profile is called personal profiling.

This profile can be used to store a description of a person's characteristics. Community profiling records health features while shaping the environmental characteristics of an area.

The health profiling system also helps to identify common issues in a region's health problems. This process of providing a holistic health history for individuals can be regarded a lifeline in emerging progress achievers like Telangana State.

Regular health information about common health problems, BP profiling and other common records such as blood grouping and preliminary pathological records can be collected and maintained through the health profiling process.

The government has initiated the health profiling process in Chintamadaka village of Siddipet block as a preliminary effort.

The village and its seven surrounding habitations were covered in the pilot programme of health profiling, which began with the process of registering over 10,000 public health details.

Based on the collected information, a major health-related assessment was undertaken.

This innovative health information collection process, which started in Chintamadaka, is going to be a pioneering aspect in the achievement of healthy Telangana in the coming days.

There is no doubt that this pilot project, which started in Chintamadaka, will be complemented by a medical reconnaissance.

Developed by Telangana State, which emerged as the 28th State in the country and has made significant strides in many sectors, the health profiling process has become a primary contributor to the tribal communities living in remote areas of the State.

This can guide the health wing to carry forward in dealing with the past indicators of common health problems and it would act as a link to the information now being recorded.

(The writer is a medical doctor and pathologist based in Warangal and is the chairperson of Kadiyam Foundation)