Tech Rescue
In Anjarakandy Medical College at Kannur in north Kerala, Nightingale-19 is set to deliver food and water to patients in Covid isolation wards. Painted in red and white, Nightingale is a robot designed by students of Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, Chemperi, in Kannur with support from Kerala’s health department. The robot helps medical staff and hospital workers minimise close contact with Covid patients and can carry food and water to six patients at one go. It helps patients communicate with doctors, nurses and family members through a tablet attached on top.
The robot is thoroughly sanitised after each round of duty. Nightingale is inspired by robots used by the health department in Wuhan, China, according to the developers.
More than 500 kilometres from Kannur, in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore, Arulalan, a community-based paediatrician, is busy chatting. The doctor runs an affordable health centre in Vellore. His AA Child Care Centre used to get around 80 people a day. But, after the corona outbreak, only emergency consultations happen at the clinic. Arulalan has installed a tele-consultation solution offered by Chennaibased start-up Helyxon, which helps him monitor patients
