IIT Ropar focuses on healthcare technology innovations
Bahadurjeet Singh/Rupnagar,March 7, 2023
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT )Ropar along with aidKRIYA (a social venture of Gita & Susil Kumar Das Foundation) launched “AIDOTHON 2022” to explore possible technological interventions for chronic diseases of joints and bowels, especially Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). IBD is increasing in India and this increase is largely driven by changes in the diet and westernization of lifestyle. On the other hand, the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is thought to be the combination of genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors. RA as strikes people in the prime of their youth and affects the small and larger joints.
The first of its kind “AIDOTHON 2022” was a 9 weeklong ‘online’ internship wherein 16 students from top MBBS and Engineering colleges in India participated to provide technology driven solutions for RA and IBD. Eminent Doctors from India (Dr. Yashavanth H. S., Dr. Jacob Mathew, Dr. Sindhulina, Dr. Abhjit and Dr. Vinitha from Bangalore Bapist Hospital) and the UK (Dr. Navtej Sathi), experts from Industry (Dr.Kinshuk Poddar from Tata Steel) and IIT Professors (Prof. Sandeep Saha from IIT Bombay, Prof. S. Kanagaraj from IIT Guwahati and Prof. Ashish Sahani from IIT Ropar) exchanged their knowledge, expertise, and personal experiences with the teams throughout the internship.
The internship programme has been successful in laying down the beta version of mobile applications such as RAider & Medibel. We expect the release on the these applications on the virtual platforms in the Spring of 2023. These Apps will include well-thought out solutions to aid patients and their care takers in better management of the triggers and conditions of RA and IBD. Few of the unique features include public toilet tracker, AI based calory calculator specific for India food and chatbot. The app will provide easy access to sense and recognize early symptoms of RA and IBD and develop an advisory tool in the process that could help the patients of these chronic ailments with medications, lifestyle, nutrition and single point access to disease history for both patients and doctors.
Dr. Dhiraj Mahajan, Associate Professor & Coordinator of this progarmme shared that, “This is the first initiative of its kind designed to generate new and unique ways to help raise awareness through a competition format. Together with AidKRIYA, our goal is to build a community of problem-solving workforce to present innovative and sustainable ideas to create a long-term impact on improving healthcare quality and standards.”
Sujitesh Das & Sumitesh Das, Co-Founders of GnSKD Foundation & aidKRIYA said, “ the objective of the internship was to create awareness of RA and IBD amongst a broad community of statekholders. In doing so, aidKRIYA 2022 tapped into the rich pool of ideas from engineers and doctors in finding solutions. We hope that this will inspire new thinking, new approaches and new way out for early recognition of auto-immune diseases.
IIT Ropar focuses on healthcare technology innovations .This unique practice of internship has laid out a framework for crowd-solving events using diverse groups, especially in the technology space. These kinds of events endeavour to rapidly solve a problem with a large group of people in a spirited style. Aidothon -2023 will be launched soon with more technological solutions for medical problems prevalent in India.
“By bringing perspective to the table from all different groups of medical students and engineers chosen for the task, we aimed to build a ‘community of innovators’ committed to escalate and stimulate more active engagement within the broader community of our stakeholders and addressing their problems through innovation and research”, said, Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar.
(royalpatiala.in News)
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