LTMG Hosp launches drive to remind pregnant women on taking medicines.
The Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General (LTMG) Hospital in Sion has launched an SMS system to remind pregnant women and mothers about taking medicines regularly.
In what is perhaps the first such initiative by a public hospital, doctors at LTMG hospital’s gynaecology have tied up Armman, a non governmental organisation, to manage the timed and targeted voice messaging service that was launched on Friday.
“It is known that patients default on taking medicines. While some forget to take the medicines prescribed, some purposely do not take the doses,” said Dr YS Nandanwar, head of the gynaecology department.
The idea was proposed by Armman, a newly-set up organisation that is engaged in designing and implementing sustainable interventions to reduce maternal, neonatal and child mortality in underprivileged urban and rural communities.
Nandanwar said the NGO had created an informative messaging framework which it will use to send out the reminders to the women enrolled with the hospital.
Dr Aparna Hegde, who founded Armman, explained that the messages are recorded in the local language and also provide information on precautions to be taken during pregnancy.
“We ask the women for the time slot when they would prefer to receive the message, the language and the month of pregnancy,” Hegde said.
The women will receive the message twice weekly, till she gives birth to the child. After birth, she will receive a message daily for a week, and after that once weekly till the child is a year old, she explained.
If the SMS project is successful, Armman will try to extend it to other public hospitals in the city, to reach out to underprivileged women.
Hegde conceptualised Armman’s activities based on her experience at LTMG hospital as a resident doctor and then as assistant professor.
Medical professionals point out that the absence of information on preventive steps has been a hurdle in maternity care. Among the major ailments pregnant women suffer are anemia and gestational diabetes and these could lead to complications at delivery and abnormality in children.
There are a couple of similar communication initiatives in public healthcare. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) calls TB patients to check on their progress as any slackening in the course of treatment could be fatal. Similar educational services are also being undertaken to help people with diabetes.
Going mobile
LTMG hospital’s gynaecology have tied up Armman, to manage the timed and targeted voice messaging service
The women will receive the message twice weekly, till she gives birth to the child.
After birth, she will receive a message daily for a week, and after that once weekly till the child is a year old.
If the SMS project is successful, Armman will try to extend it to other public hospitals in the city.
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