As per UNICEF data, about 800 women across the globe die every day of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, 20 per cent of these women are from India. Preventive healthcare during pregnancy with the goal of providing regular check-ups and promoting a healthy lifestyle to treat and prevent potential health problems can go a long way in bringing down this mortality rate. In medical terms, such an approach is called Antenatal Care. Trupti Naikare, a B.A.M.S. student of Tilak Ayurved College, Pune has developed a mobile app that has brought Antenatal Care at your fingertips. She was awarded first prize under Humanities category for her innovative solution in the recently concluded State Level Inter University Research Convention, Avishkar, held at Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded.
Antenatal Care plays a significant role not only in reducing maternal death rates but also miscarriages, birth defects, low birth weight, neonatal infections and other preventable health problems. When Trupti came to know about the causes of pregnancy related mortality rates of Indian women as part of her studies, she made up her mind to do something in this area to bring about a positive change. Given the reach of mobiles and internet today, Trupti first tried to search for a good pregnancy care application on PlayStore. However, she realized that there wasn’t a single application which is both scientifically designed and helpful in the Indian context. At the same time, she came to know about Avishkar and thought it will be a good platform to connect and seek help from experts in this area. She decided to take a plunge and build a mobile app focused on Antenatal care. A medical student building a mobile app – she knew it was going to be a bumpy ride!
Trupti had only one month with her to prepare for the convention and she divided her tasks into two broad categories – Content creation and Mobile App development. The former was within her domain and she put in tremendous efforts to convert complex medical information into an easy to understand format. For the latter part, she sought help of her sister Jagruti Naikare, a software engineer, to teach her the basics of mobile app development and her mother for the funding aspect. With the support from her sister and availability of platforms like Apper, Trupti was able to overcome the challenge to develop the mobile app. Once the app was ready, she shared it with her fellow medical students to seek their feedback and suggestions. She got positive reviews from most of them. In a month, there were 500+ downloads of her app.
Over 550 projects selected through prior intra-university competitions were presented at this inter-university convention that was held between 27-29 Jan. Trupti represented Maharashtra University of Health Sciences in undergraduate humanities category. Around 40 undergraduate candidates showcased their projects in this category. Including Trupti’s project, 6 projects out of these 40 made it into the finals. Trupti feels the judges were quite impressed with the app particularly with its benefits and usability. When Trupti was adjudged the winner, her joy knew no bounds. She feels it is the best achievement of her academic life. What made her win all the way more special was that her college won the laurels after a gap of 6 years.
Now I am selected for National Level Inter University Research Convention Anveshan 2017 which will be held in Jaipur on March 7-8. I am preparing for it and trying to add Hindi and Marathi language support in this app soon.
Trupti Naikare
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