A service for Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) Care

We harnessed the power of behavioral change to help innovate an NCD Care Model for the under-served urban population in India

the icarus craft

Client

The
Genesis

Genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors are putting NCDs like Hypertension and Diabetes on the rise.

71%

Percentage global deaths due to diabetes and/or hypertention

77 mil

diabetic patients in india

Medtronic Labs, proposed to

Initiate a complete cycle of care for Diabetes and Hypertension management, keeping in mind the underserved urban population of India.

We orchestrated the way forward.

care model
Creating a care model along with a technology component that improves patient capacity to deal with Hypertension and Diabetes.
scalability
A solution that is inherently scalable to a large population 
without massive investments in traditional infrastructure.
Operational Solution
Discovering operational solutions that address concerns of access to care, cost to care, attitudes towards chronic conditions and relationships between care givers and patients.

Our Challenge

Journey

Research Innovation
‘Livestaging’, an immersive research method, was innovated to understand the influence and interrelatedness of multiple actors on the effectiveness of NCD care.

This involved recruiting doctors, dieticians, health workers and patients, and running a care “clinic” for 2 months.

Real life prototyping made it clear that patients required life skills beyond clinical care to live with and manage their NCD condition for a lifetime.

More than a clinic on the road, we reframed the opportunity to create Prerna Program, a scalable health program that utilized classes as its main component to get people to participate and stick to clinical protocols for a long time frame.

Findings

Women should be the Target Demographic
Research made it clear that it was not possible to treat men and women with the same model. Radical access near their homes was key to women availing the service.
Need for a positive engagement with their condition.
Groups were discovered to have the inherent possibility of reducing cost to care while enhancing the uptake of positive behaviors towards NCD conditions.
Realizing the power of groups
A model was hypothesized to organize women into groups along with a group leader. These groups were continuously engaged with, for the next 6 months, to devise a Service Concept that combined lifestyle interventions with clinical ones.
Equipping the Prerna Health Coach
The Prerna Health Coach is the face of the service and keeps in touch with both the doctor and the group leader. A suite of portable point of care devices were introduced to allow her to play a key role in delivering clinical services.
Need for a lifestyle intervention module
Prerna Panch, the lifestyle intervention module, was designed to incorporate behavioral modules targeted towards five main areas: (Taking medicines regularly, Avoiding excess sugar intake, Regulating oil consumption, Becoming aware of salt intake through common foods and Finding joy in exercising as a group.) The Prerna Health Coach was provided training modules to deliver these interventions through live demonstrations aided by props and tools.
Building an I.T. Connected System
The Prerna Web App was designed to relay information to the doctors via the Prerna Health Coach. Given that doctors as a resource needed to be used efficiently, this app allowed them to regularly keep in touch with the group after providing an initial diagnosis and recommending a treatment plan. We also designed a cloud connected operation by building a tablet app for the Health Coach, a desktop app for the Doctor and a mobile app for the Group Leader.

Today, the Prerna Care Model adds to the capacity of present health rendering systems by taking an approach that combines both clinical and non-clinical interventions.

The model is scalable and can easily be extended to different locations across the country.

Product Design

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CERVICHECK FOR PRAGMATECH

Product Design, MedTech

The CERVICHECK™ Self-sampling kit empowers women to self-collect their cervical cell samples privately, comfortably, and accurately. It eliminates the need for a trained Nurse to collect the sample manually as well as the need to go to a Healthcare facility for the same thereby bringing down barriers to screening and testing for Cervical Cancer.

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Get in touch
Email: hello@icarusnova.com
Phone: +91 80 4152 1642
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