ArguSoft - Making Quality Healthcare More Accessible through Smart Phones

mHealth Technology is making huge inroads in the healthcare space today, particularly in a country like India, where the lack of a supporting infrastructure and inadequate resources present challenges in accessing even basic healthcare facilities. mHealth technology can now bring new and more innovative ways of providing care and compensating for the deficiencies of the healthcare workforce and infrastructure. However, despite its many benefits, a number of barriers are limiting the impact of mHealth in the Indian Healthcare Sector such as a vast and fragmented market, lack of awareness of the benefits of mHealth, poor infrastructure, security concerns, and the use of manual intervention, all of which have greatly deterred its adoption. Endeavoring to resolve these challenges, Gujarat headquartered Argusoft brings an inclusive framework of mHealth solutions with a vision to make quality and affordable healthcare more accessible and improve the adoption of mobility in the Indian healthcare space.

Incepted in 1999, ArguSoft has been involved in mHealth programs for over a decade and has developed mHealth solutions for a number of use-cases including Mother & Child Health (MCH) (www.imtecho.com), Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission(PPTCT) of HIV and Geriatric care. With a good understanding of the needs of the healthcare industry on the whole, the company caters to both the public and private healthcare domains with a complete framework of mobile applications. “The key to making an impact in the mHealth space is to understand and tie together technology, programs, policies, monitoring, support, and training to create a consistent positive impact that is both scalable and replicable,” explains Ravi Gopalan, CEO, Argusoft India.

Striving to address the requisites of all public health delivery and monitoring programs, Argusoft has developed a mobile phone-based service delivery and management framework that can be used in almost all public health delivery scenarios.

The key to making an impact in the mHealth space is to understand and tie together technology, programs, policies, monitoring, support, and training

At the heart of this system is a decision engine that can map doctor knowledge through decision trees, and collect symptomatic data based on the users’ responses to keystone questions. Additionally,the framework also incorporates several features for the automation of schedules, task distribution, task follow-ups to completion, field worker training, performance review, and management. Furthermore, the mobile application also assists the field workers in registering beneficiaries, where pre-defined medical protocols based on their health status are applied to generate scheduled visits for these beneficiaries.

Leveraging this engine, Argusoft has also developed TriageTrace, a customizable smartphone based Collaboration and Documentation platform to manage Change of Conditions in post acute Skilled Nursing Facilities in the US markets and extendable to home health providers in India. It assists nurses and physicians to communicate effectively, make informed decisions, leading to better care for the senior community.

Having operated in the turnkey software services segment for almost two decades, Argusoft has gained adequate industry expertise and hopes to combine this with the technical expertise of its adept team, to bring more innovative solutions. With an elaborate blueprint in place, the company is in the process of enhancing its mHealth platform and improving its integration capabilities within the healthcare ecosystem, in the near future. The recent initiative (TECHO) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2017, to expand the smart phone based mother and child health initiative all across Gujarat will be powered by ArguSoft's mHealth engine.