Invented by ex-IITians, it connects with sonography machines to monitor the activities of doctors
In April-May 2009, the collector of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district – Laxmikant Deshmukh – began an initiative to collect sonography data from all sonography centres in the district to tackle the skewed sex ratio. He discovered that there was a need for a system that could monitor the activities of doctors and prevent under-reporting and false reporting of pregnancy tests.
Kolhapur district has the lowest sex ratio in Maharashtra, and hence, this effort was a bid to curb female foeticide. This is where Pune-based Sukrut Systems stepped in.
The company invented a device that it has named ‘Silent Observer’. This is an embedded monitoring tool that connects to sonography machines and directly logs patients’ records and activities of doctors to effectively control sex determination tests and female foeticide. The main server of the device is in the Collectorate building.
“Silent Observer is a device to monitor the activity of doctors at sonography centres. The result is a videographic format of Form F submitted by doctors. It complements the physical Form F filled in by patients and doctors, to be submitted to the district administration at least once a month as per the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994 (PC & PNDT Act). Silent Observer is a tool to check under-reporting and false reporting of sonography cases by doctors,” Rajat Bansal, founder of Sukrut Systems, told Business Standard.
The captured information is stored in encrypted format to avoid any mishandling of data. In addition, the information is compressed in a pre-configured video or image format to save on storage space. The storage space is configurable up to one terabyte. Once Silent Observer is fitted in the sonography machine, it maintains a log of all sonography tests and helps to keep a record of each pregnancy test and each pregnancy termination case.
The cost of the device is Rs 28,500. It is borne by doctors at present, and they later get a full refund from the government. The state health ministry is also said to have provided an assurance that flying squads would be set up for surprise visits to these sonography centres. The squads are said to be making four visits every month to collect data.
There are approximately 7,000-8,000 sonography centres in Maharashtra. After the pilot project in Kolhapur, the state health ministry wants to implement this project all over the state and has reportedly approved the installation of Silent Observer in all sonography centres in Maharashtra.
“The results have been encouraging so far. Four to six sonography centres have been reportedly shut down after installation of Silent Observer and there has been a 15-20 per cent hike in reporting of sonography cases by doctors in Kolhapur district,” added Bansal.
Sukrut Systems was established by ex-IITians – Narendra Saini, Rajat Bansal and Hemant Singh – in 2009. It is a market-driven research and development organisation which focuses on delivering innovative technological solutions.
The company is currently developing state-of-the-art solutions in the affordable health care, agriculture and energy domains. Apart from Silent Observer, it has developed vehicle management solutions for transportation and logistics companies as well.
“Our overall vision is to establish it as the market leader in the machine-to-machine (M2M) domain by providing innovative solutions combined with professional services to deliver a fully integrated and effective solution for various business verticals,” Bansal said.
