Japan Association for Medical Informatics

[2-C-2-03] “PHC for COVID-19” for Preventing Pandemic in Rural Unreached Communities

*Rafiqul Islam Maruf1, Naoki Nakashima1 (1. メディカル・インフォメーションセンター、九州大学病院)

Portable Health Clinic, COVID-19, Telemedicine system, Non-Communicable Diseases


While 70% of the causes of deaths in a developing country like Bangladesh are from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), diabetic is one of the major contributors. During any pandemic or disaster, these patients suffer most as they cannot attend their regular follow up services by visiting hospitals or clinics. For tackling recent COVID-19 Pandemic in unreached rural communities of developing countries, the Portable Health Clinic (PHC), a telemedicine system for unreached communities, has added a new module called the “PHC for COVID-19”. This system includes an interview-based triage process for the communities for early detection of suspected COVID-19 patients who really need to go under the confirmation test immediately. This prevents the crowd who does not need the test from the PCR test centers and hospitals where there is a huge shortage of healthcare facilities. Thus, this kind of community based population management service can help to manage the community with the limited healthcare facilities.
This system also has the primary features for treatment and follow-up of the home quarantined COVID-19 positive patients from distance ensuring the clinical safety of both the health worker and the patient. A PHC system box, to be rented by a home quarantined patient, includes a number of medical sensors for self-check, and the patient can measure body temperature, oxygenation of blood, blood pressure and glucose level, and share the data using an application with the distanced doctor for consultancy. So the patients with diabetics can get the benefit of care for both COVID-19 as well as diabetic from distance even during the pandemic with the support of PHC system. This simple and handy telemedicine system can also support the diabetic or hypertensive patients in case of any disaster or emergency.