Covid-19 & iKure

Covid-19 and the adaptation by iKure in the service offerings……with hints in the way ahead.... Preamble : Covid-19 has churned out the whole human civilization into an abyss of indefinite uncertainty..withapalling incidents and consequences ,including an unacceptable record of deathsand s

Pandemic and Public Health: A Contradiction

“I am a cardiac patient. Doctor suggested me an immediate cardiac surgery before 6 months. But due to lockdown I couldn’t even travel to Kolkata. Ambulance charges become so high! Even train services are not available yet. What could be done? Should I die?”, Moidul Chacha was speaking about hi

COVID-19: Initiatives from iKure

COVID-19 pandemic has created significant disruptions globally and presented multiple challenges for healthcare providers. We at iKure, have been working on multiple initiatives to address some of these challenges. This article briefly presents some of the initiatives from iKure. 1.

Public Healthcare is no one’s business, really not any more…

As we are sitting in the middle of the #lockdown, discussing our fear and uncertainty now and beyond due to the #pandemic, we being a primary healthcare organization, suddenly want to understand where did the public healthcare screw it up? With less than 1per cent of India's GDP spending on publi

Dedicated to all the women who shaped and defined iKure

Dr. Tirumala Santra Mandal, Sr. Research & Communication Analyst, iKure brings forefront her experience in working with the other women of iKure who with her contributed and defined the venture’s entrepreneurial journey, carved new beginnings supported through women power and sisterhood- a must ha

Why Does A Healthcare Provider Need To Grow?

Why does a healthcare provider need to grow? Or for that matter, why does any organization need to grow? There are many successful and profitable businesses that have consciously decided to remain small. Surely, growth can’t be a business imperative! For over a year now, I have been focusing on

Continuity of Care in Primary Healthcare Delivery

What is Continuity of Care? “Continuity of Care” is concerned with quality of care over time. It is the process by which the patient and his/her physician-led care team are cooperatively involved in ongoing health care management toward the shared goal of high quality and cost-effective medic

World Heart Day

This Day is observed on 29th September every year, to commemorate the great role this organ plays in the human system. On this day …we must make a pledge to create and sustain a heart healthy environment, by adopting healthy choices in our day to day lives,supplemented with a basic knowledge p

World Alzheimer’s Day

This Day is observed on the 21st September every year, as a day in the World Alzheimer Month…by organisations and foundations worldwide with this name. Alzheimer’s disease is a slowly progressing cascade of cognitive decline affecting subjects in the senile age group and is regarded as multi

What Causes High Prevalence of Anemia in Rural Hinterland- A case study to assess the gap

Anemia is most prevalent in low-resource settings, where it goes undetected until becomes severe. Despite implementation of several initiatives by the Government, India has made only 13 per cent progress in eradicating anemia (Global Nutrition Report, 2017).1 Periodic screening and early diagn

iKure Celebrates National Nutrition Week

National Nutritional Week ( the first week of September) concept was created by the Govt. Of India in 1982 to emphasize,educate and create awareness among people on the importance of eating/drinking the right kind of nutrients and the impact it has on the health of a person. The word ‘Nutriti

Why celebrate World Senior Citizen Day?

iKure’s purpose of celebrating world senior citizen day is to raise awareness and support the health conditions of older people. 21st August is regarded as World Senior Citizen Day. Anyone beyond 60 years of age is a Senior Citizen by convention.We cannot help but lamenting that we cannot boast

5 facts to know on World Mosquito Day !

On World Mosquito Day, iKure shares 5 important facts to curb the outspread of the menace. 1. This day is observed every year on the August 20th , to commemorate the discovery of the female Anopheles mosquito as the notorious vector for the transmission of Malaria,through the Plasmodium parasite

How much does a Pair of Eye Glasses Costs for People at the Last Mile?

Vision impairment due to lack of access to eye glasses has been identified as one of the largest unaddressed disabilities in the world. There are many remote villages, where getting a pair of eye glasses is a distant dream for many. With a pair of glasses costing pittance, 550 million people in Indi

iKure introduces non-Invasive Hb tests for last mile community

On a Tuesday afternoon, Shivani while returning from her field, noticed a banner in a primary school about a health awareness campaign for mothers and children. She found few of her friends waiting there too. Shivani enquired about it and came to know that the campaign was providing diagnostic tests

WHO advice on screen time for children under five?

1.      That for children under one-year… sedentary screen time (such as watching TV or videos, playing computer games) is not recommended and that when sedentary, engaging in reading and storytelling with a caregiver is encouraged. 2.       That children under two years of age should h

Meshing of Big Data, AI And ML in Cardiac Care Continuum

Introduction: Every year 2.1 million patients die due to heart ailments in India. We have just 1 Cardiac Specialist for every 3 lakh patients. Although secondary and tertiary health care providers are engaged doing ECGs and several other vital collections to analyze heart health conditions, but non

Sleep

Sleep is a periodical “switch off” from the immediate and remote surroundings…without any shut off of the body and brain…..a time for cellular rejuvenation and metabolic ‘house cleaning’…processing information acquired during wakefulness and a complex mechanism of warding off many illn

iKure’s effective technology integration to address public health data challenges

“It is not because countries are poor that they cannot afford good health information; it is because they are poor that they cannot afford to be without it.” – Health Metrics Network, World Health Organization Introduction Health data is of paramount importance for public health policies, p

Malaria

Malaria is a dreaded disease since primitive times and time immemorial. There is no statistics on how many lives has been lost since the dawn of civilization, from this preventable malady…this far. It is a vector borne disease caused by the parasite Plasmodium species transmitted by the ubiq

SMOKING

Smoking is a commonly abused potential to inhale tobacco/ items of substance abuse in the form of smoke through the upper naso-pharyngo-laryngeal passage. The list of substance(s) which could be taken in this manner is quite huge today... a few being... tobacco and a gamut of items under the heading

Health Screening

Due to our lives getting complex with the passage of time, this topic assumes an enormous dimension, for the upkeep of a healthy society. ''Health Screening" is the need of the hour for every member of a progressive nation, helping build a sound future of a country. 'Health Screening' is almost a

ELEMENTARY ASPECTS OF HYGIENE AND TIPS ON HEALTHY SOUND EATING HABITS – DO’S AND DON’TS

‘Chest Pain’-Golden Rules & some urgent tips for general public

The Main Types of Vaccines

Adapted from: National Network for Immunization Information) Copyright 2000, and the National Immunization Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The safety and effectiveness of a vaccine depends on how it is made and what it contains. There are four main ways to develop v

iKure reducing status of anemia by increasing knowledge and healthcare practices

In India, anemia is identified as a serious health issue where half of the country’s women of reproductive age are anemic. Despite the fact Government of India has implemented several initiatives for eradicating anemia, only 13 per cent improved women cases have been registered as per Global Nut

Integrated approach to healthcare

Illness never sees how rich or poor you are or neither judge you being affluent or dissolute, but when it hits, it hits equally hard to all of us- helpless, clueless and money less! In India, where the healthcare is being the most neglected for decades, and accessibility, affordability and quali

Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Disease in low-income community

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) are leading cause of premature mortality. According to Indian State-Level Disease Burden Initiative report, disease burden of India has shifted from Communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases (CMNNDS) to non- communicable diseases over the period of 19

Diet Plan for good health and keeping a check on weight gain

Things NOT to consume 1. All Fried Stuff...KFC / McDonald’s / Deep Fried Items etc. 2. All soft drinks...such as Colas / Fruit Juices and fizzy drinks 3. Mutton of bigger animals... Beef/goat/pork/steaks/non b veg burgers/salami etc. 4. Frequent Fried Rice products... Biryani / Fried R

DIABETES MELLITUS

What is Diabetes Mellitus? Diabetes is a condition in which an abnormality in the metabolism results in high glucose level in the blood due to defective insulin production, secretion or utilization. Classic Symptoms Increased thirst Excessive urination Fatigue Delayed recovery fr

CHWs-Newfrontier to drive innovations in rural healthcare delivery

The need: Jayashree,is a Community Health Worker(CHWs) in her village called Hubli, in Karnataka. One day,while she visited a woman named Pushpa in her first trimester,she looked quite unwell. On enquiring Pushpa was found to suffer from Epilepsy. Her family also revealed, she has been prescribed wi

Taking on anemia by readdressing antenatal care in Karnataka

Key words: Anemia, Antenatal Care, Data analysis, cloud computing, MMR and IMR   Context: The Burden of anemia in India is a major public health issue. More than 50% women and 20% children suffer from anemia and a leading cause of 40% maternal deaths in the country. In the state of Karnat

Health Corner- Myths versus Facts

Preface: I was given a rather daunting task by one of my acquaintances to put down some tips on good health for general information to my fellow crowd and beyond to humanity at large. Naturally it was difficult to decide where to start from, since the target readers may be from all strata and commun