As civic and national administrations across the globe continue to work to get the Covid-19 outbreak under control, the focus firmly remains on monitoring and controlling its spread. To help the Department of Health (DoH) at the local government in the southern Indian state of Telangana with this task, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) developed a digital Covid-19 Monitoring Platform.

Through this platform, the Telangana state DoH can seamlessly manage end-to-end Covid-19 requirements for each citizen, right from identifying suspected cases of infection, quarantining patients who test positive and providing treatment and support to the underprivileged. The platform has been used at hospitals and quarantine centers across Telangana to capture and update the status of patients using a mobile app and web portal.

Tracking Good Health

As a trusted partner to the Telangana government, TCS has been running an end-to-end IT application suite that manages a government-funded health assurance scheme called Aarogyasri, among others. To help hospitals and labs in the state manage Covid-19 patients kept under isolation, TCS launched an integrated digital platform on March 23, for use via a mobile app and web portal. 

Frontline staff at all medical institutions under the Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust (AHCT) use the mobile app to register patients, log sample collection details and update treatment status (whether the patient is under observation, in ICU or in ICU with ventilator support). The surveillance team uses the mobile app to register suspected, home quarantine and Covid-19 positive contact cases.

All this information is accessible to a panel of doctors through a dashboard on the web portal so that follow-ups can be scheduled and symptomatic cases can be referred for hospitalization, if needed. A comprehensive MIS system has also been developed to help the state and district administration (including the chief minister’s office, chief secretary, health secretary, district collectors and other designated officers) make timely decisions on improving services by deploying the required resources.

Positive Health Outcomes

Working under the challenging set of circumstances brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak, the TCS team adapted to frequent updates to the requirement list – basis changing guidelines from ICMR, the Indian national medical research body – in an agile manner. Regular remote interactions with the DoH team under the TCS SBWS™ model helped with course correction, along with the senior resources being available at all times.

Thanks to the quick solution provided by TCS, the Telangana DoH has been able to monitor cases in real time and control the spread of COVID-19 by identifying suspected and positive cases quickly. The app also helps patients register themselves proactively in case they find themselves displaying COVID-19 symptoms, with the platform doing the work of triggering the appropriate workflows.

This way, possible Covid-19 positive patients do not end up infecting others by turning up at their local hospitals unannounced – instead, the district administration reaches out to them proactively. So far, more than 7,000 healthcare workers involved in Covid-19 outreach in Telangana have made use of the app. 

Says DoH Telangana special chief secretary, Santhi Kumari, “The Covid portal turned out very well. Thanks to the TCS team for working day and night and going the extra mile in these difficult times.” Punya Salila Srivastava, the joint secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, added, “The Central team visiting Hyderabad has found that the state has adequate no. of testing kits, PPE, etc. The state is using an end-to-end IT dashboard to track patients right from testing to discharge.”

“The Covid portal turned out very well. Thanks to the TCS team for working day and night and going the extra mile in these difficult times,” said Santhi Kumari, Special Chief Secretary, Department of Health, Telangana

Previously published on TCS.com