The Harvard South Asia Institute is pleased to announce the launch of the JanaSwasthya Project at the 2015 Kumbh Mela in Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.
The JanaSwasthya Project comprises two components: a large-scale digital disease surveillance program, EMcounter, and a mass screening program for oral health, hypertension and diabetes offered to pilgrims, sadhus, security forces, and all visitors in Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.
The cornerstone of the project is a unique interactive visual analytic tool (“dashboard”) that provides critical disease surveillance data to health officials in real time. The dashboard went live at 8am on the morning of August 28th, and by evening had tracked over 2,000 visits recorded on government issued tablet devices at over 30 fixed and mobile health clinics serving pilgrims at the Mela.
This real-time disease surveillance program is unprecedented in its scale. Thousands of data points can be compared and contrasted using its many filters, proving to be an incredibly powerful tool for local public health planners.
Organized under the aegis of the Public Health Department, Government of Maharashtra, and supported by UNICEF, Colgate, and a range of local partners, the project builds on Harvard’s extensive research at the Allahabad Kumbh Mela in 2013.
Follow our team as we immerse ourselves in the world of pilgrims and tablets, the sacred and the scientific, Nashik and Trimbak, Shaivites and Vaishnavs, doctors and pharmacists, and technology and faith:
Visit the project’s website.
