JAROKA TELE-HEALTH WINS MBILLONTH AWARD

23 July 2010:  A world’s leading mhealth solution, Jaroka Tele-healthcare, received another accolade as it was declared winner in the mBillionth Award’s mHealth category this Friday in New Delhi, India.

At a ceremony organized in New Delhi by its convener, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and sponsored by India’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, OnMobile, and Intel among others, presented the award to Jaroka from a pool of over 200 nominations and submissions.

We are now in a world where technology is capable of anything; from allowing physicians to review patient records on-the-go, to alert drivers in any city of nearby parking spaces while looking for spot, to surfing the internet and watching movies; and what better way to celebrate it than this award for innovation in health and technology.

The mBillionth Award is dedicated to exploring the potential of the mobile sector and promoting game changing applications all across South Asia. The mBillionth secretariat at Digital Empowerment Foundation (http://defindia.net), New Delhi reached out to the entire South Asia region to solicit nominations across 10 categories:

Business, Health, Education, Culture & Heritage, Government, Entertainment, Inclusion, Environment, Tourism, & News and Travel. The Grand Jury of the mBillionth South Asia Award reviewed more than 200entries hailing from 8 South Asian countries, and chose 1-2 winners from each category.

The Jaroka project was honored for its interactive interfaces, innovative design, aesthetic value, accessibility and most of all it’s relevance of content and utility value.

Jaroka Tele-health is a joint collaboration between UM Healthcare (www.umtrust.org), NUST (www.seecs.edu.pk) and APPNA (www.appna.org) which aims to provide better access to healthcare for rural and destitute communities across the globe. The project has received significant funding from USAID and ISIF Foundation.

Atif Mumtaz presenting at APPNA CME

UM Healthcare attends the 32nd annual APPNA Convention in San Francisco, CA, USA. We presented our work and results with special emphasis to the IDP crisis. We also briefed the audience of our Jaroka Tele-healthcare initiative that is one of the most sophisticated medical technological solutions in use in rural Pakistan.

APPNA, (Association of Physicians of Pakistani-descent in North America is a 15,000 member not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering scientific development and education in the field of medicine. Established in 1976, APPNA is one of the largest medical societies in North America.

APPNA is one of our active partners in many of our projects including IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) relief efforts and Jaroka Tele-healthcare initiative.

Our team was represented at the conference by Dr. Rizwan Naeem (APPNA), Atif Mumtaz, Dr. Qasim Nasr (UM Healthcare) and Ms Shamila Keyani (NUST) attended the conference from our behalf.

For details: http://blogs.tele-healthcare.org/2008/12/successful-medical-camp-in-mardan.html

We also distributed free medicines to the poor and needy and treated them through a group of volunteer doctors at near zero cost (US$0.40/patient or PKR 30/patient).

The facility in village Zahidabad, Mardan District, NWFP, is now treating close to 2,000 patients in a month with majority of the patients being female.

Dr Nauman Siddiqui conducting BLS Training

UM Healthcare Trust in collaboration with APPNA and Disaster Management Center (DMC) held an extremely successful BLS (Basic Life Support) Training session in rural Mardan District.

The training included video, mannequins, and interactive lectures (both in Urdu and English) thus making it highly hands-on.

Over twenty healthcare services providers from the local community (rural health workers, Lady Health Workers (LHW), pharmacist, medical students, midwives etc) participated in this highly interactive session. In the end certificates were distributed to all successful candidates who passed the DMC administered test.

Photostream of the event can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/mumtaz.atif/BLSTrainingAug2008

Dr. Rizwan presenting Jaroka project

USAID in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) organized an extremely productive and successful conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. The conference was attended by people from academia, scientific community, entrepreneurs and government officials from USA and Pakistan. All the projects funded under PAK-USAID joint collaboration were given thirty minutes to present their project to the audience, which was followed by engrossing question and answer session.

Dr. Rizwan Naeem, (Project – PI) presented our Tele-healthcare project and explained the uniquness and innovation in healthcare. Dr. Rizwan also explained the virtues of the project emphasizing how it can be used a model for rural healthcare in Pakistan.

Mr Mumtaz Ali addressing the audience

Quran Khawani and official inauguration ceremony was held for UM Healthcare Trust facility in rural Mardan district. Over 160 people attended the ceremony held in the newly built amphitheatre at the hospital.

Keynote speakers included, Mr Mumtaz Ali, the chairman of the board of Trustees of UM Healthcare Trust. Mr. Mumtaz Ali talked about the virtues of the newly built facility and the impact on healthcare for the rural community in the area.

The facility will treat patients in the area for only PKR 30/visit and will provide totally free medicines. This is a first of its kind facility to be established in rural Mardan district.

Dr. Zarina treating a patient

A medical camp for the needy was organized for Paediatrics and Gynaecology cases at UM Healthcare Trust facility. Over 160 patients were treated by the specialists who had driven from Lahore (700KM away) to diagnose and treat the needy patients in the vicinity of Village Zahidabad.

This was the first specialised medical camp for children and pregnant woman in this area.  Free medicines were also distributed to the poor.

Photostream of the event can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/mumtaz.atif/FreeMedicalCamp