2004-11-14
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
Computers are increasingly important in health care. But can they
also help poor people escape poverty? Vikram Sheel Kumar thinks so.
Mister Kumar is a doctor, an engineer and the head of a small
business in Boston, Massachusetts. And, in September, this
twenty-eight-year-old received an award for Technology in Service to
Humanity. That award came from Technology Review magazine.
His goal is to improve health care in poor nations with the help
of computers small enough to hold in one hand. These devices are
known as personal digital assistants, or P.D.A.'s.
Doctor Kumar started his company two years ago. It is called
Dimagi, which means "smart guy" in Hindi. His parents came from
India. There, Dimagi computer programs are used to organize medical
information on more than seventy thousand patients.
Doctor Kumar says health care workers had problems at first, but
then learned quickly how to use the devices. Nurses no longer have
to carry heavy documents whenever they travel to villages. And they
no longer have to copy large amounts of health information by hand.
In South Africa, health workers are using a Dimagi program for a
different purpose in the KwaZulu-Natal area. They use it to provide
patients with results from tests for H.I.V., the virus that causes
AIDS. People who get tested must enter a secret identification code
to see the results.
And, in Boston, children with diabetes are using a Dimagi system
to learn about their disease and how to control it. The software
includes games and ways for the children to communicate with others
with diabetes.
Doctor Vikram Kumar says it is important to get patients involved
in their own health care by helping them gain information. He says
there are endless possible uses for this technology, especially in
developing countries. And he urges people to suggest ways to improve
it. Dimagi programs are written in code that is open to anyone.
You can learn more about Dimagi at dimagi.com. The name is
spelled d-i-m-a-g-i.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary
Garriott. This is Gwen Outen.