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Time of India
24-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
ET Digital UP Conclave: ‘Technology empowering governance, driving industrial growth in UP'
Governance is empowered through digital technology, and the digital push in turn fuels industrial growth, experts said during a panel discussion on 'Digital Uttar Pradesh: Engine for Industrial Growth' during the ET Digital UP Conclave on Friday. Mission director, National Health Mission, UP, and secretary, medical, health and family welfare department, Pinky Jowel said, "Many new things have been introduced in the health sector in last two years. For example, E Kavach is a comprehensive digital health application that has data on all health schemes. It incorporates a registry of every individual in the state." "Every ASHA worker has smartphone and laptop. Similar is the case with ANMs and community health officers. They capture all data related to health systems into E Kavach, which helps us analyse and form policies for future. So, this is a digital revolution that even our lowest field workers can record all immunisation, screening of diabetes and hypertension, and we are adding more health issues to it," she said. "ABHA ID is another innovation incorporated along with E Kavach. It is a kind of smart card with a QR code, and it has the digitised health ID of an individual," she added. "The govt is working on technology-enabled governance, and to ensure this, we must take care of the basic needs of technology user. It should be error-free, transparent, and simple to use. The biggest example of technology-enabled governance is the booking of railway tickets. Earlier, it was tough to get a ticket in offline mode, but now, within seconds, a ticket is booked," said CEO, Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA), Mayur Maheshwari. "The power of technology is such that with meaningful interventions, we can make daily lives of common people easy. UPSIDA's digital platform was earlier used by around 800 users, but now around 11,000 people are using it monthly," he added. "In UP, 98% of industries are MSMEs, and the number is huge. This sector has less automation and a huge number of employees. In industrial areas, all land approval, bank loans, and incentive disbursement are online," said secretary, MSME and Export Promotion and Infrastructure & Industrial Development Department, Pranjal Yadav. He said the govt's focus was to make interactions online to make things easy for artisans and craftsmen. "We have come up with an Alexa kind of device, with sticky films that capture pathogens. It hovers over farms and detects pathogens, which is otherwise a challenging task in agriculture sector," said national sales head, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd, Lokesh Sharma. The session was moderated by managing director, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Nikhil Agarwal. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Brother's Day wishes , messages and quotes !
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Lives of 8K more moms saved during childbirth in UP in 10yrs
Lucknow: More expectant mothers are being saved from dying during childbirth in UP now compared to a decade ago, suggests a comparison of the sample registration system (SRS) bulletin on maternal mortality. The bulletin for the reference year 2021 was released last week. It showed that compared to a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 285 in 2011, UP's MMR was reported to be 151 in 2021. Maternal deaths are measured in terms of lives lost per one lakh live births. This means that in 2011-13, for every one lakh live births, 285 mothers were dying. This number declined to 151 in 2019-2021. UP's birth rate stands at 24.8 per 1000 population as of now. This translates into some 62 lakh live births in a year, keeping the state's population of 25 crore in mind. So, an estimated 8,308 expectant mothers were saved from dying during childbirth in the SRS year. The decline is a multi-factorial outcome, said mission director of National Health Mission, UP, Pinky Jowel. "Our entire team worked tirelessly to ensure access, quality and timeliness of healthcare services. ASHA workers, ANMs and medical officers improved service delivery at the grassroots level, which paid dividends," she said. She added that the strategy of caring for mothers and children for 1,000 days has proven effective in reducing MMR. "This included registering pregnant women immediately upon conception, ensuring at least four antenatal check-ups (ANC), and identifying and managing high-risk pregnancies under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA)," she said. She said that the state worked hard to strengthen First Referral Units (FRUs) to save more lives. "While on one hand, the state rolled out a massive programme to train doctors in emergency obstetric care to manage complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period to prevent any untoward incidents, it invested in ensuring the availability of 24x7 delivery services at the FRUs by deploying specialist doctors, trained staff, providing blood storage units and operation theatres," she said. The multi-pronged strategy also included promoting institutional deliveries, maintaining the quality of healthcare services under the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS), strengthening emergency medical transport service (102-108 ambulance) and reducing its response time to promote institutional deliveries. It also involved monitoring the health of mothers even when they reach home through MANTRA and e-KAVACH apps, among others. Despite this reason to smile, UP needs to continue to work on the count for several reasons. First, the state's burden of MMR is the third highest in the country. Second, it is way behind the national figure of 93. Finally, it is far from the sustainable development goal target of 70. Asked what the state govt would do to improve its performance on the count, Jowel said: "Our future goal is to achieve NQAS certification for more FRUs and to strengthen data-driven decision-making systems to continuously improve the reach and quality of maternal and newborn care services, bringing UP's standards on par with national standards."
Time of India
29-04-2025
- Health
- Time of India
UP eyes 50% NAQS certificationfor health facilities
Lucknow: Mission director, National Health Mission (NHM) UP, Dr Pinky Jowel, on Tuesday said that the state has fixed the goal to get at least 50% of the health facilities certified under the National Quality Assurance Standards (NAQS) framework. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Preparations are being accelerated across all districts to meet this target," she said, informing that 1,059 health units in UP have already earned the NQAS certificate. Later, an official spokesperson said patient footfall in NQAS accredited units was on the rise. The trend was visible under heads like OPD attendance, the number of surgical procedures undertaken, and the number of diagnostic tests done. Citing an example, they said: "Sarojini Nagar CHC offers a case in point. In 2022, the daily average patient footfall was 100, but after the NQAS certification, the number surged to 250–300 patients daily." They also informed that the centre now houses a range of specialists, including a physician, gynaecologist, paediatrician, dental surgeon, and anaesthesiologist. Enhanced cleanliness and upgraded facilities made the CHC a preferred destination for patients from nearby areas such as Darogakheda, Banthra, Mohanlalganj, and Uttaretia. Beneficiary patients acknowledged the improvement. "Earlier, we used to go to private clinics. But now, Sarojininagar CHC provides better care, so we prefer going there," said Shreyanshi Shukla from Daroga Kera. "Govt hospitals have seen remarkable improvements. I recently had the privilege of having my wife delivered at Haroni Primary Health Centre, where all necessary medical care was provided, and both mother and child are doing well," said Jitendra Tripathi, Junabag.
Hindustan Times
25-04-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Ambulance services benefitted over 13 cr patients in last 8 yrs: UP govt
Ambulance services in Uttar Pradesh catered to over 13 crore 26 lakh patients, including pregnant women and newborns, in the last eight years. Dr Pinky Jowel, mission director of the National Health Mission (NHM), said a total of 4,845 ambulances are currently operating across Uttar Pradesh. These include 2,270 under the 102 service, 375 under ALS (Advanced Life Support), and 2,200 under the 108 Emergency Medical Transport Service. In the last eight years, the 108 ambulance service has helped over 3.57 crore (3,57,24,745) people in emergencies. One of the biggest achievements has been the reduction in average response time from 28.12 minutes in 2014 to just 7.25 minutes in 2025. The 102 ambulance service, dedicated to pregnant women and newborns, has helped over 9.62 crore (9,62,48,151) patients in the same period. Its response time has also improved from 19.10 minutes in 2014 to 6.58 minutes in 2025. These improvements have played a major role in reducing maternal and infant mortality in the state. According to the Sample Registration Survey (SRS), the maternal mortality rate dropped from 216 per lakh (2015–17) to 167 per lakh (2018–20). Similarly, the infant mortality rate decreased from 23 per 1,000 in 2016 to 21 per 1,000 in 2020, said a press statement issued by the state government on Thursday. The ALS ambulance service has benefited over 7.14 lakh (7,14,552) critical patients, and recently, the chief minister added 125 new ALS ambulances to the fleet. Its response time has also seen major progress, improving from 30 minutes in 2014 to 6.31 minutes by 2025. To ensure efficiency, real-time monitoring technology, which tracks ambulance locations and response times live has been added.
