Jipmer has spread the wings of its rural outreach initiatives with the launch of a project to improve the health status of people in Edaikazhinadu town panchayat in Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu.
Being run by the Jipmer International School of Public Health (JISPH) with the help of Jipmer alumni, the ‘Uluru healthcare project’ will initially focus on a population of about 32,000 spread over 24 villages.
The choice of this region is to build on the work done by Jipmer’s alumni foundation, The East West Foundation of India, for over two decades. It is proposed to leverage mobile health (m-health) technology during the camps visit, for bringing expert services to community as well as monitoring of medical conditions by remote presence.
“We have already started to develop some health services delivery solutions by building ‘cohorts’, wherein populations will be grouped for risk assessment and longitudinal follow up. Now Jipmer is spreading its wings to reach out to its alumni and enhance relationships with Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project to help in moving the needle in population Health” said T.S. Ravikumar, Jipmer Director.
The ‘Uluru healthcare project’ took shape from recent discussions the Jipmer chief had with the Tamil Nadu Health Secretary.
For the first medical camp held in the town panchayat on Friday, Dr. Ravi Kumar and Prabhu Clement Devadoss, expert adviser, NCD Projects, led a team of 30 Jipmer faculty, social workers and staff to Edaikazhinadu.
They were joined by health officials from Tamil Nadu and panchayat representatives from the adjoining fisherfolk hamlets of Sunambedu and Kadapakkam.
The outreach initiative forms part of Jipmer’s philosophy of stepping beyond merely producing graduates of its Masters in Public Health programme at JISPH, and rather become a hub for implementing universal health care concepts and driving health service delivery innovations.
