Technology, Research and Innovation At AarogyaSeva – Enabling Healthcare for All

With a large fraction of population not having access to even basic healthcare, we at AarogyaSeva believe that Technology, Research and Innovation can play a critical role in provision of affordable healthcare for all. Despite huge advances in medical technology a large fraction of world population (some would argue more than 2/3rd of it) does not have access to quality healthcare. Among other things, part of this disparity originates from high cost of buying, operating and maintaining proprietary and closed medical equipment. Higher cost of medical equipment is often attributed to cost incurred to do research & develop and to take the devices through regulatory approvals.We are engaging with all stake holders including healthcare providers, engineers, designers, impact investors to enable development of affordable medical technology.

Here are a few ways in which we are trying to achieve this:

Open Medical Innovations

AarogyaSeva provides an open source platform for development of medical technology through power of collaboration and innovation. Much like our micro-volunteerism model for healthcare delivery at low or no cost, OpenMedical Devices is a platform for engineers, designers and innovators to contribute to development of affordable medical technology. By sharing research, technology, development and designs process across multiple stakeholders in open source we hope to develop healthcare solutions which is safe, effective, appropriate, affordable, accessible.

Healthcare Hack-a-thons

Bringing together healthcare providers, engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, investors to solve real world challenges of healthcare delivery for the needy. Our first hackathon organized as part of YourFry competition in partnership with Penguin Books, UK with a specific theme of ‘Digital Innovations in Healthcare Volunteerism’ brought together 30 plus stakeholder at SevaHouse to:

• Solve a community problem
• Design and validate ideas
• Create a prototype and test solutions
• Meet with experts and community leaders
• Tell stories of change

Our 2nd Healthcare Hackathon with the theme of “Technology Hacks for Universal Accessibility” will be organized on 24th May 2015 in partnership with Dept. of Medical Electronics, BMSCE and IEEE. Check this post for more details.

Community Engagement and Education

AarogyaSeva is actively reaching out to academic institutions to sensitize student community to the need of society and how they can be a part of solution. A number of non-medical volunteers have come forward to develop solutions for our needs, which we are in process of taking forward.