Students develop app to help Jayadeva Hospital patients consult doctors virtually

Bengaluru: "When was the last time you consulted a doctor?" This is the repeated question for the patients who have undergone percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) during COVID time. What if there is something you could possibly do to help your loved ones while waiting for that doctor's consultation in case they have any health issues?

To educate and help patients, three college students in association with Jayadeva Hospital have designed a Jayadeva Hrudaya Spandana app which will help patients who have undergone PTCA consult doctors at Jayadeva Hospital virtually.

This group of students from Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru, Manoj Atreya A, Parikshith H, Naga Rajath S M, have helped patients get close to the doctors through this app. As computer science students, it was right up their alley, but they had their fair share of impediments along the way.

Prof. Sadashive Gowda, Principal of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, says, "We are very happy to have associated ourselves with Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences. This project has helped us bridge the connection between the technology institutes and healthcare which is very much needed. We believe that academic institutions work very closely with the healthcare sector so that it benefits the society at large. We would like to work very closely with the healthcare sector to address those problems that need local solutions. It also helps students gain exposure and experience on finding solutions for problems of the society. We are open for such associations to help various institutions address societal problems using technology."

The app is said to save patients from visiting hospitals for frequent consultation with doctors. Virtual consultation helps patients to connect with the doctors with just one message on the app from the comfort of their homes.

"Patients can also share their reports with the doctors through the same app. Along with helping virtual consultation, the app provides learning materials to its users that guide them on dos and don'ts, exercise etc. Also keeping network issues that people from rural areas face, the app has been developed using optimum technology. It allows people to use it even with 2G networks. This helps people from the remotest areas too to use the app even when they have a 2G network. The app allows the users to use it either in English or in Kannada languages" said Manoj Atreya A, a team member and a UG scholar, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru.

As it was reported that hospitals from other parts of Karnataka too are facing problems as many of their clients from rural areas are finding it hard to visit doctors at regular intervals. The college management claims it is receiving requests from other hospitals too and will continue taking up such initiatives in future.

Dr Gururaj said "We took this project with an aim to support the society. Initially when we received a request from Jayadeva hospital, we developed a sample application where only 10 – 15 users could use it. Now the app has been developed in a way that it could be used by a greater number of people. As of now over 200 users are using the app and a greater number of users can use it too. It costs a lot of money to design such applications. We worked on this project without any commercial intentions so that the public could derive the best of its benefits."

Data Security Assured

The app addresses one of the major concerns in the field of telemedicine – data security. Since the patients share their personal information such as their personal health status, it is important to ensure that the data is secure. Students who have developed the app say all information shared on this app is totally secure. To ensure security & integrity the data is stored in Google cloud and latest technology has been used to build the application to make it easily accessible.