An innovative product that can become a boon to provide emergency medical care as well as out patient services in remote rural areas — AmbuPod — has caught the attention of entrepreneurs at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit here.
Developed by a Pune-based doctor Lavanian Dorairaj, the Ambupod is a single patient all weather Basic Life Support (BLS) micro-ambulance and a makeshift clinic setup. The ambupod can be connected to any vehicle, from motor cycle, auto rickshaw to a wheel barrow for easy navigation along narrow paths and in any kind of difficult terrain. The solar-powered ambulance has a medical attendant to provide resuscitative care while the vehicle is in motion.
The zero polluting ambupod has hi-tech software to facilitate sharing of patient's vitals with the hospital doctor including ECG, explains Dr. Dorairaj who has developed the rural health care platform with the help of his daughter Yamini, a psychology graduate and an aspiring entrepreneur. “We have applied for a patent and looking for investors to scale up the project,” they told The Hindu .
The ambupod has a kit that allows the setting up of a make shift clinic that can run daily OPD services. All the medical instruments on the ambupod can be charged by solar power. The ambupod is agile enough to climb hills, mountains and move through narrow village tracks or slum paths, they explain.
The low cost, hi-tech rural health platform can activate 24x7 ambulance and six days a week primary out patient department services in any village or slum in as less as three working days. In normal times, the medical assistant sitting in the ambupod becomes the eyes and ears of the doctor in the city and communication happens between them to extend medical treatment to the patients in their own habitation.
Ms. Yamini says that they are spreading awareness about the product seeking to tie up with NGOs or under the corporate social responsibility programme who share the same passion to make a differenence,
The ambupod is priced in the range of ₹ 3.5 lakh to ₹4 lakh
