diabetes news in ahmedabad mirror

NIDian’s low-cost approach for diabetics

Vazir Nadaph, a final year student, has designed a kit that a nurse will carry to rural areas, a kiosk to check one’s glucose level, and a website for the urban diabetes patient

By Shraddha Singh

Posted On Friday, July 24, 2009 at 03:09:42 AM

Nadaph (inset) has introduced the concept of a nurse called ‘Madhuaasha’ who will carry the kit and keep a regular tab on a patient’s health

Fed up with your umpteen visits to the doctor for a diabetes checkup and diagnosis? A final year product design student of National Institute of Design brings hope for urban and rural patients of diabetes.

Vazir Nadaph’s product-service design concept incorporates a diabetic kit that a nurse will carry to the rural areas, a kiosk where people can check their glucose level, and a website that will cater to the needs of diabetic patients in urban India.

Nadaph, who started work on ‘Project Diabetics’ since last July as part of NID’s student exchange programme with RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, says, “Through my product-service, I want to show that design can be successfully used in the health sector. ”

How the service will work
For the rural patients, Nadaph has introduced the concept of a nurse called ‘Madhuaasha’ who will meet and diagnose the patients and keep a regular tab on their health. The service will be available at a subsidised rate for them.

The nurse will carry a specially-designed diabetic kit, that will have a blood-glucose meter, blood pressure monitor, stethoscope, insulated box for insulins and syringes, first aid kits, section for information leaflets and handouts, data registers and the nurse’s personal stuff.

For the urban patient, Nadaph has designed a website, which will be a user-pay service. On the website, patients can upload their medical history. This info will then be sent to experts in the field who will analyse the data and recommend a prescription.

Here, everything will be delivered to the patient’s home. The patient needs to make only a few routine rounds to the doctors. Patients can also chat and blog with other patients on the site and create awareness.

Nadaph says, “Normally, a diabetic does not take his ailment seriously unless some serious symptoms appear. It’s very important that such people keep a day-to-day tab on their blood-glucose level.”

Nadaph’s project guide and NID faculty Pravin Nahar says, “This project is all about what design can do for the health sector. Nadaph’s project is well-designed and addresses the immediate need to take the treatment and diagnosis of diabetes seriously. This project has great potential as it can lead to multiple options.”

Indian Fish new diabetes model

Indian Fish new diabetes model

Scientists in India, considered by many to be the emerging hotspot of the diabetes world, have succeeded in inducing type 2 diabetes in fish. The freshwater Indian Perch (Anabas Testudineus) had the disease induced in them by being fed with a compound called palminate. Palminate is a free fatty acid, and is one of the contributory factors in the development of diabetes.

Experts found that when Palminate was fed to the Indian Perch over the course of 100 days, their body mass increased by over 60 per cent. Their glucose and insulin levels also shot up by 2.5 times. Scientists also noted that the fish became insulin resistant, and this led to further accumulation of glucose in their blood.

The study was carried out by experts from the Indian Institute of chemical biology and the School of Life Sciences, and will be reported in the journal Current Science. The study has important implications for using the nutritionally induced diabetic perch as an animal model in the study of type 2 diabetes.

Perch can be bred and maintained under laboratory conditions, scientists said, and they can also bear the stress of surgery and have a quick recovery period. If the type 2 diabetes epidemic is to be diverted, the disease requires new animal models for the development of new therapies

Methods and Practices

MEHTODS AND PRACTICES

Project Diabetes

Keywords: Design methods, IEID, Back-casting, RSS Feed, Blog, and Diabetes.

While dealing with real world design problem, we need to follow some methods and practices which suits to the area we are dealing with to collect maximum information through various sources. This paper essentially deals with methodologies and practice we have followed to reach a vital solution for diabetes community.

Project diabetes is mainly focuses upon diabetics as a primary location for design innovation and community intervention. Hence, I think the IEID method approach is best suited for designing the service system and essential product development for the project. As designing a product or service is essentially concerned with how people can improve their day to day experience and basically focused on community intervention. The conception of community is placed as valid part of research and real world problem solving. Hence in the project we can clearly see that there is a potential diabetic community has been already identified and it is increasing rapidly. The project tackles with many issues such as illiteracy, poverty, self management, and healthcare, which essentially requires incorporating stakeholder participation as way to explore real life issues, develop understanding about the project, develop and refine ideas and innovate.

The methodology behind the approach explained above in divided into four phases, which are Immersion, Exploration, Intervention and Demonstration. (IEID)

In the Immersion phase is we are expected to identify different stakeholders of the project. So in case of project diabetes can say the stakeholders are diabetic, health worker, health practitioners, healthcare providers etc. the second part is information collection through various channels. Listening, reading and questioning to experts in the field as well as the diabetic. This information collection can be done through various resources. One nice method I followed is a kind of Triangulation Method. It is an interesting and quick method to gather information about a particular topic through web. The essential part is to set up a blog account on web where u can collect all the information to a single place, and as it is very helpful to the reader also to get the information about the related subject at one place. After setting up the blog by using RSS feed and Scribe fire tools one can easily collect the information about for what other people writing through the world and place it the blog. News getter keeps you updated with recent issue happening throughout the world related to the subject. You can frame the keyword related to the project, as in case of diabetes the keywords can be chronic care, diabetes management, online healthcare etc. So news getter will give you the latest post written by different organizations. This method helps you to get quick information collection about the current event happening in your field of interest.

In the exploration phase we are suppose to look for inconsistencies in the project and explore the possibilities. In this phase we try to find the loop holes in the current systems understand the system and locate the relevant area to intervene. Back-casting method helps to evaluate the impact of problem discovered and further opens up new possibilities.

Now what is Backcasting Method? It is a method to extend our imagination to future and visualize the scenario related to the concern problem and try to project the possibilities and make an attempt to find the solution, rather than merely try to solve the issues considering it will help in future. So in case of diabetes we tried to visualize a service and developed future scenarios which essentially lead us to develop a web based service.

Here comes the intervention phase into picture. Now as we have visualized a service we need to go back to the stakeholders and ask them to reflect on the service. With rigorous discussion and interviews with different stake holders such nurses, doctors and different diabetics we can generate a database which will help us to intervene a service system and essential product support that can help in achieving a positive effect in the diabetic community.

Once we intervene a convincing service and essential products which fits in the service from the gathered information through different stakeholders, then we can demonstrate the service by making prototype. Paper prototype is a very good method to demonstrate a web based service in effective manner.

The methodology will include the conventional design practice with deliverables like concept sketches, paper prototypes, mock up models etc.

The project will be framed in different phases so as workout a timeline which will help the project to run with smooth pace and prepare us to deal with the unpredictable and uncertain problems in the real world situation.

To conclude we will be following three different methods namely IEID, Back-casting, triangulation method and regular design practice to approach the possible design invention in the area of diabetes. The main focus will be on visualizing a service to self manage the diabetic condition. The process will be followed as scenario development, paper prototyping and product development.

The end deliverables will be a web based service and essential product support.

Prepared by:

Vazir Nadaph

S3216510

RMIT University

Litrature review

Literature Review

Project Diabetes

Introduction:

As per World health organization 180 million diabetics in world and the number is about to reach 230 million by 2030. Out of these more than 30% diabetics are from India and China. The known diabetics count in India has reached 32 million and more than 50% of them reside in rural sector. There is a real need to understand the fact of the rapid growth in the number of diabetics and work towards coming out with possible design interventions in the community benefit. This requires extensive research about the field and need to understand the healthcare system which supports in managing chronic diseases like this. If we see the broader picture most of the diabetics lack in managing their regular blood sugar levels because of several reasons such as lack of knowledge, poor resources, poverty, and mismanagement etc. the increasing growth in rural diabetics is an good example of lack of resources. The rural diabetic can’t manage his BGL because he in capable to afford the cost involved with the disease and no proper channels through which he can take benefit. Where as half of the diabetics suffer with lack in early diagnose and most of them die identified. On the other hand an urban diabetic is busy in his daily activities, which makes him difficult to find time to regulate his BGL. The fast urban life has developed irregular food habits and fast food culture, where a diabetic really can’t keep a record of every day food management. Hence this develops a need of support product service system where the rural diabetic can get benefited with low cost services, education and product support and the urban diabetic gets a service where he can manage his daily data and gets regular feedback. The overall dialogue is suggesting that an effective product service system can stand efficient to help the diabetic to manage their condition.

Visualizing the service

The term “Product service system” has been defined as a marketable set of products and services capable of jointly fulfilling a user’s need. The product and service ratio in this set can vary, either in terms of function fulfillment or economic value” in case of diabetes home care model the service will be looking at the both the perspective but in different user needs as the rural sector needs the economic value where as the urban sector needs functional fulfillment and both carry equal weightage. The service is apparently works in conjunction with different stakeholders. There are various approaches and trends are outlined towards the development of product service system (PSS) are outlined as

• Sale the use of product rather than product itself

• The change to leasing society

• A repair society rather than throw away society

• Change in user’s mentality from sales to service orientation.

The challenge new approach lies in system solutions, where bits and pieces fits together, integrated to a support care system which will the diabetic to self manage his/her conditions to a satisfactory level. Such system based solutions should facilitate the shift from other healthcare systems, in which products, services, supporting infrastructure and necessary networks are designed, so that to provide a certain quality of life to the diabetic and same time reduces the environmental impact of the system.

For a diabetic, this service means a shift from buying expensive products and spending time and money on doctor’s visits to buying a service which has potential to provide vital data through web based interface and the required product support

For the service provider, the service means higher degree of responsibility for the products full life cycle, early involvement of diabetic in the design of service and design of a close loop system.

Why this service?

The home care model concept has the potential to bring about such changes which can accelerate the healthcare industry to shift towards more sustainable practices and societies. According to some authors, the concept might be promising for commercial companies, government, and customers

Understanding this system will provide an opportunity to bring a better lifestyle for diabetic. The current health care practice in India is not very well organized. The cost of healthcare is unbearable by a common man and the government services are so chaotic and unhygienic. They are not really managed; the service they provide is not really dependable. So by supporting such kind of private healthcare institutes government can assure a clean and hygienic health care practice. The concept of a product service system facilitates innovation at a more than incremental level and has potential to bring financial benefits.

This service can be an extension for some healthcare companies for their existing offers for the patients. Others can see it as a new business opportunity.

Usually such companies are forerunners and see the opportunity of being first on the market as a basis for survival.

There are different benefits for product manufacturing companies, heath workers and health practitioners by getting associated with the service.

Product component

Attach addition value to product.

Simplify the usage of the product so as to understand by the common user.

Make the product economically viable and easily in reach of user.

Service component

Health workers can locate the area and take charge. Visit the diabetic at regular interval. The job of health worker is clearly defined, and that is to guide the diabetic to self manage his BGL. Explain the benefits regular exercise and diet control. Keep a track of their BGL readings and forward it to the concern heath practitioner. If serious symptoms observed she can suggest the diabetic to visit the concern health practitioner.

The role of health practitioner is to monitor the diabetic condition and prescribe the required mediation. He will be involved in educating the rural sector in conjunction with health workers and attend regular camps.

The overall set up will be organized and by the healthcare team and will be connected through a web based interface.

Government and society component

Understanding diabetes home care model (DHM) can therefore help to formulate policies that promotes sustainable pattern of consumption and sustainable lifestyle. DHM have the potential to offer a new way of understanding and influencing all the stakeholder relationships and viewing product networks, which again may facilitate development of more efficient policies (Mont.o.k)

At the same time, it is expected that the promotion of added services or substitute of products and alternative schemes of product-service use can assist in the creation of new job.

Benefits

Diabetics can be benefited by this service because they receive product support and prospect for schemes to for variety of products. It will not be mandatory to go for the same product as their will be a greater diversity of choices in the market for those who can afford.

The service components, being flexible by nature the, induces new combination of products and services, better able to respond to changing needs and conditions. The products given to the diabetics are can be under the ownership of the producer and so the user will not have to worry about its servicing part.

The service system changes the price cost systems of the present economy because “the cost of production are only a very small part of the costs involved in making a product available to customer.” Diabetics pay not for material goods but for intangible services. This can amplify the technical development of dematerialization, which is already an ongoing process.

As products are essential part of this service, successful development of a product service system requires that manufacturers and service providers extend their involvement and responsibility to phases in the life cycle, which are usually outside the traditional buyer-seller relationship, such as take back, recovery, reuse and remanufacturing. Usual responsibilities for products are extended through the additional or deepened responsibility for service, including the responsibility for proper organization of take back arrangements and systems for reuse, remanufacturing and recycling and for educating consumers about efficient product use. The reduced technology and material requires a stronger co-operation with suppliers and expertise of the field.

The relationship between the healthcare team and the diabetic plays key role if the product service system are to be designed effectively. Some healthcare institutions have already started working in the area of diabetes and building up close relationship with the diabetics.

The organization who wants to adopt this service will need to change its traditional structure. The extended involvement of the organization with other stakeholders and actors in the service chain may create a demand for intermediates. A web based service can act as the binding element or will act as a common thread. A new network may need to establish in order to develop the system. This can be research network which will investigate through qualitative and quantitative method the actual number of diabetics in the sector, regional and sectoral network can help locating diabetics which are unidentified, through the means of health camps, advertisement and campaigns.

Design particularities

There are few existing examples of design projects, where entire product service system is being designed. The design methodologies of the entire DHM probably differ from the regular product design method.

• Designing DHM requires close interaction of all actors with in the life cycle of a product service. Through interaction between the service and the product manufacturer, is more likely to permit the clear transmission of the economic incentives, allowing service activities to drive manufacturing or design changes.

• The servicing and maintenance part of product should be well designed

• Alternative scenarios of service considering different aspects and possibilities to be priorly thought of.

• The scenarios to be shown to the user of the service, providing information on economic and environmental offers.

• Health workers are to be trained regarding the topic of self management, diabetic care and other required knowledge.

Barriers

The concept of PSS is still in the development phase, but it has already been suggested all possible scenarios of moving towards more sustainable production and consumption system. Hence it’s therefore important to examine all convincible barriers to its development, application and continuous betterment.

• As the service is dealing designing both the product and service system it’s difficult to develop the scenarios of alternative product use.

• As we have an identified sector to work on the risk of acceptance of the service and convincing the service to the society reduces to an extent.

• The designing of service with product support considering the environmental and sustainable issues can be lengthening and can create dilemmas

• The user of the service might not be very enthusiastic about the ownerless service, or the target area might not turn beneficial.

• Product testing should be done before implementing the service as product failure can also lead to the failure of service.

• All components of the service need to be intact and well designed as the success /failure of service is the responsibility of each and every stakeholder.

Conclusion

There are many examples of service design can be found in various fields like eco design, product customization, recycling , healthcare, public services etc. but we can find very few complete examples which are successful in completing the loop. Hence service has to be design carefully considering each stake holders responsibilities and viabilities. Even we should have to think of the uncertainties which can fall into place time to time. Need to project future scenarios and work on those lines which will help in presuming the threat lying ahead. Readiness to accept the service by the user should be estimated by a participatory research to evaluate a competitiveness of the service and its profitability for the user. Research should be carried out in all various aspects; parallel model can be studied if required. Result of research and gather information will govern the future design directions.

Bibliography.

Social research methods, Lawrence Newman.

How to do research project. Colin Robinson.

M. Bhaskara Rao, Manja Prasek, Zeljko metelko, organization of diabetes health care in Indian rural areas, 2002

Mike Graves and Naresh Kumar Reddy, Electronic Support for Rural Health-care Worker.

WHO Technical Report Series 646, 1980. WHO Expert committee on diabetes mellitus: second report

Liam fennessy, Soumitri Varadarajan, Helen McLean, Working with communities: a case study of design for diabetes, 2007

Mont o.k, clarifying the concept of product-service system, Lund University.

Stahel WR, the limits to certainty: Facing risk in the new service economy, kluwer academic publishers, Dordrecht, 1989

Goedkoop MJ, van halen cjg, te riele hrm, rommens pjm, product service systems, ecological and economical basis, 1999

Rao Pv., http://diabetes-india.com

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diabetes care model for India

PROJECT PROPOSAL

Keywords:

Diabetes, Product service system, Social Innovation, Diabetics,

Chronic diseases, Self management, Rural India.

Abstract:

“Designing a Product Service System for diabetics in India to self manage their conditions, mainly focused upon in particular the areas of data management, education, prevention, lifestyle change, and communication between diabetics, doctors, and health workers.”

Introduction

India second largest populous country in the world and out of which more than 70% of population resides in rural India. India is predominantly an agricultural nation, the literacy rate in India as a whole is still very low. And as its an highly populated country the its obvious to have a higher rate of diabetics. There are thousands of villages in India where people have to walk or travel by bullock cart for miles together just to obtain even a simple medical aid. There are no proper lavatory facilities, which are essential for diabetes patients. Remedies for diabetes prescribed by native medical men include neem tree leaves, bitter gourd juice, honey etc.

From above description it shows that there are many more problems and challenges are there related to diabetic health care in India. A community approach is necessary for planning and implementing prevention and control programs for non communicable diseases like diabetes with common underlying risk factors.

WHO estimates that there are 32 million diabetics in India, diabetes was responsible for more than 125,000 deaths in 2000 and up to 75 % of them were unknown of the fact that they are diabetic. Studies has proved that rising prevalence of non insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM), which affects Indian earlier than west. Diabetes retinopathy the common cause of blindness in urban, middle class Indian is on the rise, although it is not at high risk. Diabetes is also the most significant cause of end stage kidney diseases. The cost of drugs for diabetes, already high for the average Indian, is expected to go up in the near future.

Diabetes health care in India

The practical management of diabetes in developing countries is often made difficult by the scarcity of health care workers, monitoring equipments and even drugs supply, especially in rural areas. Lack in general awareness of the disease due to in adequate or even absent diabetes education undoubtedly contributes to delayed presentation and misses diagnosis.

The development of diabetic complications is closely related to glycemic control, to accessibility to patient care, and to patient compliance with a rigid dietary regimen and lifestyle. These can be influenced by number of including age, co morbidity, socioeconomic status, and social health care support.

Hence the risk of development of long term complications could be avoided by improving the quality of diabetes care for patients by establishment of public health care system.

The cost of diabetes care is so high that government can not afford the medication cost. The annual estimated cost of care of one insulated treated person attending diabetes care in madras was more than Rs 25,000/-.

Out of 32 million diabetics in India, 20% that is around 7 million diabetics require insulin treatment. The government is unable to provide proper health care, so most of the people depend on private hospitals for better care. There are number of voluntary organization and private clinics and outpatient services to pay the individual attention, patient education towards diabetes.

Current Healthcare Associations active in India

Diabetes association of India was founded in Mumbai in 1955, the aims and objectives of this association are as follows:

• Study of the causes and treatment of diabetes.

• Promoting of patients education through various media such as lectures, discussions and publications.

• Promoting plans for early detection of diabetes.

There are 25 branches distributed all over India. The association works in co-ordination with WHO. The association takes active part, in international congresses on diabetes and organizes national congress on diabetes every three years.

Some other institutes like,

AIIMS- All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Apollo hospitals are also actively connected with the Association.

Problems of Diabetes in Rural India

The rural sector is suffering from poor socio economic conditions, low health awareness and limited access to medical facilities. Within these circumstances rural diabetics are always diagnosed with severe level. Hence it shows that implications for the provision of healthcare service throughout the Indian subcontinent are clearly essential. These includes both the finances make comprehensive and acceptable diabetes care service to the people, and more important the consideration of capacity of people to afford this service. Indian government spends 1.2% of its annual budget on health and money routinely allotted to no communicable diseases and especially diabetes is sparse.

Approach:

For planning health care of Diabetes for a District in India, we will take a sample district Kandhamal from state Orissa.

The Dream Land of Nature

The district Kandhamal a part of erstwhile district of Boudh-Kandhamal came to existence on 1st April, 1993 as a result of reorganization of the district of Orissa. The district is a land of scenic beauties, water falls, and natural springs, hill tracts, perched with history antiquities. The District is otherwise peaceful but on 25th December 2007, it attracted attention due to Christians and Hindus and Kandha tribe and Pana caste people. This is the land where Kandha tribes are the principal inhabitants. The district headquarter is Phulbani located in the central part of the district. Administratively it constitute with 2 sub-divisions, 12 CDB, 2 ULB, 153 GPs and 2515 villages. Physiographical the entire district lies with high altitude zone with inter spreading inaccessible terrain of hilly ranges and narrow valley tracts which guides the socio-economic conditions of people and development of the district. More than 50% of population constitutes ST community of aboriginal tribal races. Overall, the district is rank as a backward district in the state of Orissa (India).

The population of the district is 6,90,000 (projected count on the basis of 2001 census) out of which 50,000 is urban population and 6, 40,000comes under rural sector. The literacy rate is 43% and the male to female ratio is 60% to 40% respectively.

There is one district headquarters hospital in phulbani, and four government hospitals in different tehsil place. The state is divided into two sub divisions namely Kandhamal and Baliguda and 12 C D blocks and 153 Gram Panchayats.

Map of kandhamal district Tehsil in kandhamal

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Planning of Diabetes Health care

The ever increasing numbers of diabetics alarmingly stretch the disease burden beyond the limits of health care provisions. A primary care clinician with certain with certain expertise in diabetes can barely look after some 30 persons a day by appending 10 min with each and provide minimal care to 1000 diabetics in a month.

To meet diabetic’s requirement and ensure and ensure easy approach to the health center, it has to be set in the center of the chosen place to reach the patients from the periphery and to allow for transportation of patients by ambulance in emergency to the regional diabetes health care center, which can be located at the four tehsil zones.

Hence the risk of development or progression of long term complications could be avoided by improving the quality of diabetes care for patients by establishment of a community health care system.

The healthcare for diabetes provides an excellent example of a chronic disease where primary health care must play a key role. The personnel involved at local and referral levels are physicians, nurses and midwives, community workers, who should ideally work as a team. After a period of training, community health workers have a valuable part to play in the health care team.

• The training should enable them to detect new cases.

• To test urine or blood for glucose, to identify specific problems.

• To give advice, and to know when and where to seek advice themselves.

• They should also be able to prescribe follow up care and to provide accurate information to the patient and his family relevant to patient needs.

The primary health center should be staffed with a physician, a nurse and some health auxiliaries. In addition to its health functions, it serves as an educational institution for both the staff and patients, as a center for dissemination of printed information such as diet sheets and as a place where patient’s records are kept. It aims to offer continuous comprehensive and coordinated care. The diabetic care health care centre in different zones will be equipped with OPD, inpatient ward and a care unit with a small administrative wing.

Responsibilities

Diabetes Home Care Team

This is a group of expertise which will be located in four different zones of Kandhamal district and will take care of the rural and urban diabetics come under the zone.

The set up of the home care model will consist of a diabetic physician, health workers @ 30 diabetics/ week. Small administrative wing to keep the records and check the digital records coming from various sub units located in the zone and process that data to the respective heath practitioner in the field.

The team will be associated with general health consultants like dietitian, Endocrinologist, physiotherapist, ophthalmologist, dentist, podiatrist etc. so as to direct the patients to the respective consultants for the treatment as per schedule.

Health care worker

Diabetes health care worker play an important role in the community health care systems. They work as assistant to the physician to give patient more detailed information and instructions about diabetes. The diabetic has to deal with special problems every day, including how to plan their meals with various foods, do different kinds of exercises, deal with hypoglycemic events, and seek doctor’s help and so on. A visit to general physician will not cover all information mentioned above, while a health worker in the field can make general information more and more in detailed and personalized to fit the patient’s daily life. The diabetes health worker can also work as diabetes educator to provide information and aware them with new symptoms.

There is a need of comprehensive plan for diabetic education; a person once diagnosed with diabetes has to live with the disease. All the more, this disease affects several aspects of the victim’s life, such as diet, lifestyle, physical well being, mental state, economic conditions, sexual and marital life, etc. so in any discussion regarding diabetes not only patient but also his family should take active participation.

The education plan should go through three phases, are

• Primary or initial education.

• Secondary or in depth education

• Tertiary or continuing education.

Diabetes education and treatment camps:

The camps will be conducted in periphery of different zones, once or twice a month. It can be worked out in collaboration with social organization or NGO’s to screen the diabetics in each zone. Advertisement or posters should be displayed for urban people while for villages village heads, schools, postal department should be involved. It would be very convenient to organize these camps in to school campus or any public open space. Local newspaper, television advertisement, radio announcement will be good way of publicity.

The diabetics in the camp should receive comprehensive treatment including education regarding the basic education regarding diabetes, diet modification, exercise, medications. Name and addresses should be recorded at same time and registration can also be happen the same time. Those who are not registered at the same time can be followed up with health care workers and convince them the importance of their involvement in the service.

Some Strategies

Our aim is to approach the problem of diabetes with a view to prevent and control it, with the help of appropriate diabetes health care system. While designing the system following aspects should essentially be considered.

• A web based service which will be more helpful and convenient for the diabetics residing in urban sector. This service will be a user pay service and the user will have free access to the basic informative web support, but has to subscribe for full service by paying yearly subscription. This will provide consultant support in respect to the diagnosis and necessary product support. Once the service is subscribed then the diabetic will get all the required product support and online feedback account. This will provide him the required day to day feed back in respect to diet, exercise and everyday tips for BGL management. They will get additional facilities like chat rooms and blog room where they can learn and share there views. This will help them to come out of their depression and form a community and make friends. They can chat directly to doctors and write directly through blog to get feedback from various expertises from all over the world.

• The rural sector will be mostly managed by the health workers, each zone will be having a central health care unit, which will take care of the online data of the zone and provide health worker support for the zone.

• The zone will be divided in sub zones and a particular area will be given to the health workers where he/she can take care of 30 diabetics, at the rate of 5 diabetics per day. So if we consider 3% is the diabetic population in the state then the number comes around 21,000 approx. out of these 2000 will be residing in developed cities, which can have direct access to internet. Where as rest of the 19, 000 people has to be taken care by the health workers.

• The diabetics can visit to doctors every month and the regular day to day management can be governed online. Those who don’t have access to web as in rural and remote areas can be managed by health workers on mobile healthcare.

• Heath care worker needs to carry a carer’s kit which will have enough space to carry necessary space to keep products and medicines for demonstrations, a small display screen for data review, internet connection device if required, small handouts and manuals for diet and exercise guide.

• The benefit of subscribing the service can be explained to the user by showing the long term returns and the use services in critical conditions in longer run.

Expected outcome

The design project will have a physical design outcome with the potential of it being web enabled. A well thought and practically designed health care service. The end deliverable will be a range of multiple operating systems for diabetics that will keep the updated records and directly communicated to concern doctors. Essential product design, development and support for the community.

Submitted by:

Student

Vazir Nadaph

P.G.D.P.D

Product Design,

National Institute Of Design. India

RMIT University. Australia

S3216510@student.rmit.edu.au

vazir@nid.edu

vazir.nadaph@gmail.com

Contact:

+61- 0431 935 105

For Melbourne in Melbourne with Melbourne

For Melbourne in Melbourne with Melbourne

I am not very good at writing. Even if its IELTS Exam or literature reviews, I have always struggled with my writing skills and wonder how people can write so much and so beautiful.

So here I am sharing my experience in Melbourne and with Melbourne since last 4 months. I have tried to maintain the order of occurrence as and when they happened.

So this is how it started…

One fine morning Praveen (our coordinator) called me in his cabin saying he has selected me for the exchange program with the German university. Wow!! That was great news however it didn’t last for long as prerequisite was the passport details. So that how this chapter got over for me. Opportunity got shifted to one of my colleague. However Praveen called me and said that there is another opportunity waiting ahead for me. Opportunity to be associated with RMIT University Melbourne, this is how my journey for RMIT started.

Three of us from our class and total 18 from NID got selected for exchange. After a long struggle I managed to get my passport also. Everyday meeting with Catherine (International Program Coordinator, NID), mailing to Liam regarding the clarification and preparing for IELTS exam was the routine. We all faced too many uncertainties before reaching Melbourne. From IELTS, medical to VISA everything was uncertain. Visa also got delayed, but some how managed to get it before a day prior to the journey. So finally out of 18, 15 managed to get ourselves through this tough time.

7^th July 2008 was our flight for Melbourne. Everything was set. My parents came to drop me till Pune station from where I took a bus to Mumbai. The fortnight halt was at Shweta’s sister’s place. Next morning we left to Chatrapati Shivaji terminus, we were doubtful about the road network and traffic jams but still managed to reach in time.

Finally after 3hours with all the security check-up and adieu to all friends and relatives, 11 AM we sat in the Singapore airlines flight.

This was my first International flying experience. As I always loved to see places I was very excited about this journey. The whole journey I kept looking at beautiful view out side the window into the indefinite blue with couple of glasses of wine.

Around 5.30 we landed Singapore Changi Airport. I was stunned to see the structure; architecture of Changi Airport is really amazing. We spent around three hours there on the airport, waiting for our next flight to Melbourne.

9.00 pm we boarded for Melbourne. The flight was full as compared to the previous flight. This time I couldn’t help sleeping through out the journey because it was dark outside.

8^th July, morning 7.30 four of us landed Tullamarine Airport Melbourne. After a long security checkup, it took us more than 2 hours to come out of airport. Soumitri and Liam were there to pick us up.

I had met Liam in NID before coming to Melbourne, so it was easy to locate him in that crowd. However it was our first encounter with Soumitri; we had our formal introduction with him. At the first glance, I found him serious However it all went in vein when we had a real comfortable talk on the way to Nunnery. Soumitri dropped me and lalit to Nunnery, introduced us with the place and people and left as he was in a hurry.

‘Nunnery” guest house is located on Nicholson Street. The 150 year old building was a great experience for living. It was quite expensive for our standards but nicely maintained place, surely value for money. I really thank Liam for booking our stay in nunnery at first go, because that was our first impression about Melbourne and we all were very delighted to have such a wonderful welcome.

We were chilled and thrilled, hungry till afternoon receptionist suggested us to go to Bambi’s pizza. This was our first encounter with Melbourne food and was quite disappointing at first go, but sooner we managed to find some quite nice joints to satisfy our tastes.

Nunneries stay lasted for two weeks; meanwhile we were looking for different guesthouses, backpacker’s hostel and apartments. As nunnery was little expensive deal, we finally managed to find an affordable deal at Victoria hall accommodation a recently renovated guest hose. During these days I enjoyed self and group cooking experience, carrying differences but still together.

Liam has always supported us and helped us out in many things. From opening account in bank to the access card he was always there to guide us. I always had a close interaction with Liam regarding Mekhala’s case and trust me he had done best possible, what he can do for it. That was the time when I realized that he is not just a good guide but a very nice human being as well.

We were getting acquainted with the place, started knowing people around there culture and living style. It was quite fascinating to see what we use to hear about foreign countries and I found it convincing. The discipline and management is just in the blood of these people.

A day at Soumitri’s home was an unforgettable experience with in this span. It was Sunday when Soumitri called us for lunch at Chauvel Street. We took Sunday special met card which is of 2$ 80, an amazing deal to see Melbourne zone1 and 2.

Walking through the lanes of beautiful bungalows with sloping roofs, it gave me a feeling of my dream place. I always wanted to have my own house in exactly similar neighborhood. Home made food, adrak ki chai, besan ke laddu and cricket with Iyan made our day.

Work itself started on 21^st July. Soumitri showed some of his work and gave us a brief idea about his project. I got introduced to ben for the first time here. Benjamin creek second year student of Industrial design and my project partner in diabetes project and now one of my good friends in Melbourne. Over the time I got to know more and more about ben. He is a disciplined, well organized guy. He was very helpful and supportive through out the tenure.

When Soumitri introduced me to the project, I was quite relaxed to see that the brief was not drastically different to what I had been expecting. I had previous experience of working on service design, which helped me to understand the depth of the subject. Soumitri has introduced many different ways of research techniques, information collection and paper prototyping, which I never used before. In this way it was a great learning experience.

Through out the period, I really enjoyed working on the project, developing service, visualizing scenarios and making prototypes. I think more than research class I enjoyed the major project.

Confusions were always there in mind. About the work I am doing, which books to read, where to collect the information, whom to talk and discuss. The background from which I came, we were taught in a different manner. The way to look at things as problem solving slowly got washed out with rigorous discussion with Soumitri.

Social Innovation was a new term for me. Even though I was very much aware ofthe meaning of it, but was unaware of its implication in terms of design. After looking at Soumitri’s work I understood the depth of it but still I am not sure whether I am working on those lines or not .I is still struggling to understand the essence of the subject. Hoping the end results will be the quit satisfying and up to the expectations.

Thursday research class is something which always goes above my head. Methodologies, reading books, discussing writers my god this is not my cup of tea. After finishing the class we used to get so zapped, that people use to say “oh today is Thursday”. I have always been confused in research class through out the semester.

Exploring Melbourne is quite an exciting task. Melbourne museum, Federation Square, Eureka Sky Deck and lot more places to see. Saint Kilda beach and Brighton beach were accomplished, and still a long way to go.

Working late night or most of the time full night; I really enjoyed building 87. Sometimes we all feel that there is an attachment with endeavor room now. I think am really going to miss this experience for sure.

I celebrated Ramadan here in Melbourne, one more exciting event. Working full night and then having bread and jam in the morning 4 am for fasting and then after Namaz going to sleep for rest of the day till evening became routine that time. I and lalit use to sleep full day and up full night, so lalit also did fasting with me in way. Garlic bread was introduced by Nayab and Prachi within these days only. Now garlic bread and French onion dip is our breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner as well. Ramadan prayer was another awesome experience. We offered it in the jail court. Then we all went to shweta’s place where Shweta cooked very nice breakfast for us with shahi tukada (I just love it) then we saw movie ijaazat one my favorite movies, we also had very nice lunch together. Shweta is really amazing cook one should admit.

Initially I was very excited to see that RMIT has provided Muslim prayer rooms but felt very terrible to see that now those rooms are banned for praying. So every Friday prayer we offered in the open space near main building. I wish soon this matter will get resolved.

I never imagined last year that I will celebrate my next birthday in Melbourne. Every body was up till twelve to wish me then we celebrated it by cutting cake and saw movie the Wednesday online. That day we went to see Eureka sky deck 330mtr high residential building. It is World’s tallest residential building. An extraordinary experience again, the edge of 3 meters cantilevered glass floor was thrilling. It felt like we were flying in the air. Standing 280mtr high in air is such an extraordinary experience. In the evening I gave a small treat in Bismi again. Overall we enjoyed a lot that day. Similarly we celebrated Shweta, Nayab and Khshitish birthday with in this span.

Along with good experiences I came across some strange experiences as well. However I believe experiences only teaches a person understand the way of living. The importance of home one can understands only when you are away. We all missed home food. Now sub way burger and Bismi’s biryani has become quite a torture.

I will never forget the one week we spent in global backpackers. One of the worst experiences we had in Melbourne. The typical pungent smell, unpainted walls and the clumsy room, it was a horrible experience that led us to extensive search for an apartment. This was the time when we six got divided into two groups. Shweta and Anindita got a sharing accommodation and we went back to Victoria.

This was the time when I was going through a little bad phase and faced tough time.

Before coming to Melbourne we planned that we will work part time so that we can save good amount of money. But it didn’t work out. Some dreams remained incomplete only. 5000$ scholarship is sufficient enough to survive with bare minimum facilities in Melbourne. One would need approx 1200$ per month if he is staying in a dormitory. And for four months 5000$ is sufficient. But if u want to roam around, drink and enjoy then you definitely need to do part time job and getting a part-time job is again a stressful thing.

The thing we used the most is the internet facility by RMIT. I wonder after going back to NID, how we are going to survive? Internet has become a bare necessity some how. Everyday on NID mail we see student facing problems with slow internet speed, ban on video downloading and limited access to internet. Internet has become a bare necessity some how.

There are many things I liked about the place. Many times the culture reminds me of Goa in India. The people here, their eating and drinking habits are almost similar. I am very much impressed with neighborhood planning and the public services. Everything falls in right place, every activity happens on right time. If u walk around at morning 4 to 5 u will see the road cleaning vehicle running down the road. I really wonder why India lacks in all such kind of services. The superb road and transportation network, traffic disciplines, tram service, free tram service, disciplined and energetic people, clean and neat roads, I think I am going to miss all this back home.

Project Diabetes is now on the verge of finishing as per schedule but for me it’s still yet in the developing phase, we have developed a service for diabetics which is essentially an web based service which works in conjunction with health careers and health practitioners. Essential product support is provided for different class of patients as per their need. Very interesting aspect of this project is that rural sector can be benefited by low cost products support at subsidized rate. Soumitri has cleared lot of doubts and showed me right path every time.

I was always nervous about the project; but still I am happy to be a part of it and hopefully will keep on working ahead on the similar lines. Scenario building and paper prototyping is something really new I learned here. And I am very much convinced that, it’s a very good process to adopt for product development. It really gives justice to the produced work.

Meeting with Pam (health care practitioner) was an informative part of this project which helped me to understand the service part in more elaborate manner. Soumitri has taken regular efforts to arrange meeting with all the possible stake holders understanding my need and requirement of project. That was the best part I liked about him. Right now I am working on the product part of project, me and ben working together on the cad models of glucometer and kiosk. We both are running behind schedule and really need to gear up. My cad skills are very weak so I am under confident about that part, but still trying to learn. it is an important and necessary skill which we would need to learn to survive in the industry.

Once Soumitri said dream the service, this reminds me of a very nice statement of Paulo Coelho from his book Alchemist “Before a dream is realized, the soul of the world tests everything that was learned along the way, it does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lesson we have learned as we have moved toward the dream”.

And this is the time when most of us give up, and I don’t want to do that.

So still the journey is continued, lot more to do, lot more things to dream and make them tangible, bring them to reality.

Vazir

home care nursing model

Benjamin Creek Diabetes Project

nursing model developed by Benjamin