Health Clinic in a Box
India's Health Problems
Neurosynaptic Communications is a small business with ambitious goals. In order to understand Neurosynaptic Communications, however, it is essential to understand some things about India.
Did you know that over the past 15 years, India has been the second fastest growing countries in the world? Or that if the country's economy continues to grow at these rates India will outgrow those of Italy and Great Britain? While these facts make the situation in India look bright, they camouflage the fact that this economic prosperity only applies to those living in the cities. For 70% of the 1.1 billion people living in India these numbers and projections mean very little. These are the people who live in rural India, surviving on less than $1 dollar a day. The most pressing problem rural Indians face is the scarcity in healthcare, and Neurosynaptic Communications is doing something about this disparity.
Neurosynaptic to the Rescue
Luckily, a former Motorola engineer named Sameer Sawarkar has come up with a solution to this mounting problem. In 2002, Sawarkar started Neurosynaptic Communications with fellow engineer Rajeev Kumar. The vision of Neurosynaptic Communications is simple, yet hugely ambitious at the same time. Sawarkar firmly believes that "Every individual should get the best quality healthcare at an accessible place and affordable price points," and his company's mission is to bring this to those who don't have it. To make this dream a reality, they've designed and implemented two programs.
Health Clinic in a Box
The first of these programs is a medical kit about the size of a boom box. The box contains five important medical tests, including a thermometer, a blood pressure gauge, and even an electrocardiogram. The kit is made to aid village medics when making their rounds. An exciting and innovative aspect of these kits is the fact that once the tests are taken, the information is transmitted to highly qualified doctors in some of the nation's top hospitals for analysis, diagnosis and recommendations. Without this amazing invention, many Indians would never know they were at risk for heart disease and many other illnesses, until too late.
But, what good is a kit if it is too costly for the people who need it? Thankfully, the team at Neurosynaptic Communications has solved this problem as well. The boxes have been carefully designed to minimize cost, making them an affordable $300 a piece, thus making the actual cost for each patient between 38 and 63 cents! That's a big change from the $5 an electrocardiogram test used to cost.
Telemedicine
The second idea is telemedicine--a really exciting way of connecting patients to doctors in the nation's top hospitals.
The goal of Neurosynaptic's telemedicine project is to establish kiosks in villages where a nurse or other medical personnel could perform certain tests on patients. The kiosk assistant then sends the information to a doctor in the city for evaluation. Through videoconferencing, the doctor and the patient discuss treatment options and questions.
Since rural communities have difficulty attracting and retaining highly educated professionals, very few qualified medical personnel are available to these people. Telemedicine is so great because it gives everyone what they want--the doctors get to live in the cities and work in the big hospitals, while the country-dwellers still receive access to high quality medical treatment and advice. Everybody wins!
As of January 2008, over 25 kiosks have been established and more than 50,000 people have received exceptional healthcare, all thanks to Sawarkar and Neurosynaptic's vision for the future of healthcare!
Disruptive Healthcare
Neurosynaptic Communications plans to work with pharmaceutical companies to make low-cost medication available in the kits. They also plan to expand the number of vital tests to include eye care, pathology, and biochemical tests, in order to further meet the healthcare needs of their customers.
Needless to say, Sawarkar is incredibly pleased with the results and reception of his "Health Clinic in a Box" creation, and he has great plans to help his country, and the world, overcome the health problems of the poor. Sawarkar said, "[It's] not mandated only for villages, and we see a huge untapped market" for the product in urban areas, all over the world.
Stone Mantel applauds all disruptive innovations-especially those that exhibit exceptional social responsibility. Bravo, Neurosynaptic Communications!