The first batch of ten each were despatched on Saturday by post to the Rishikesh-based institute. It was a pure labour of love for the team at BEL headed by scientist Matukumalli Rajasekhar.

Bengaluru :

The Bengaluru-based PSU Bharat Electronics Limited has been roped in by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Uttarakhand to develop wrist and chest bands to monitor those with COVID-19 or suspected of having it.

The first batch of ten each were despatched on Saturday by post to the Rishikesh-based institute. It was a pure labour of love for the team at BEL headed by scientist Matukumalli Rajasekhar of its Central Research Lab who churned out the products within a week’s time.

Rajashekhar told TNIE, “The concept was proposed by AIIMS to BEL. The software, sensors and cloud system to store them were all developed by us here. We have also developed a mobile app. A total of 40 of us were split into three teams.”

Both the bands have to be worn together by a patient, one around the wrist and the other around the hip like a belt. “It is GPS enabled and connected to a common server. The wrist band will send the temperature and other details to the server. All patient movements will be tracked through it. The chest belt will show the respiratory status of the patient. Alerts are sent to the Chief Medical Officer in each district. The CMO will alert the health workers in the area who can track the patient.”

In case any of the bands is thrown away by a patient, alerts will be sent indicating that they are not being used, he added. “Such bands are not in use anywhere in the country and it is the first such initiative,” the scientist said, adding, “AIIMS wanted to test the first batch to ensure all readings are fine. We will be doing it in bulk as soon as we get the green signal from them.”

AIIMS is likely to ask BEL to produce 25,000 pairs of bands, he added. Asked about the business part of it, the scientist said, “We are not looking at it as a profit venture. The cost incurred in readying the apparatus for each patient works out to around Rs 10,000 and the institute is likely to pay that to us. We are not charging them as it is our contribution during this crisis-ridden time.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by S. Lalitha / Express News Service / April 18th, 2020