Most blood cancers are caused by the uncontrolled proliferation of an abnormal type of blood cell, which disrupts blood cell development. These cancerous cells, also called abnormal blood cells, prevent your blood from performing a variety of functions, such as fighting infections and preventing catastrophic bleeding.

Blood tumours are classified into three types:

Leukaemia

Lymphoma

Myeloma

THE CONDITION IN INDIA

Many people in India die of blood cancer as a result of the unavoidable costs of treatment, which are then followed by exorbitant aftercare costs. However, one doctor has dedicated his life to treating patients with blood cancers. Dr. Sandeep Nemani, who is also a HealthPlix doctor.

BRIDGING THE GAP

Dr. Sandeep Nemani earned his MD in Internal Medicine from Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital in Mumbai. In college, he was first in his MD exam. He has been fascinated by haematology since his medical school days. Vellore’s prestigious Christian Medical College awarded him a DM in Clinical Haematology. He also came out on top in MGR University in Tamil Nadu, where he received a Gold Medal.

He established a Bone Marrow Transplant Center at Shri Siddhivinayak Ganapati Cancer Hospital in Miraj, and has vast experience in stem cell and bone marrow transplants.

According to Dr. Sandeep, people in Miraj and Sangli, for example, lacked access to effective blood cancer treatment. They were forced to travel to Mumbai or Pune for treatment. It was sometimes difficult to get to these locations due to distance and finances. Dr. Nemani, on the other hand, saw the problem and decided to close the gap between patients and treatment by bringing the service closer to them.

He shares, “In this region of the country, we’ve also started doing bone marrow transplants. Sangli and Miraj have a long history of producing outstanding doctors in practically every field. For a long period, this region lacked haematological services. Patients were travelling to metro areas like Pune and Mumbai for diagnosis and treatment of a variety of haematological illnesses, which posed both financial and logistical challenges. In light of this, we are pleased that Sangli-Miraj now offers world-class haematological care.”

Dr. Sandeep has treated a dozen patients in this location so far, with a 70% success rate.

Dr. Sandeep remembers treating his first patient with blood cancer in Sangli. The patient was a 30-year-old man who had been diagnosed with blood malignancy. They needed to get his bone marrow transplant done after they treated him. As a result, Dr. Nemani suggested that it be completed in a metropolis. The patient refused and insisted on being treated in his hospital. Dr. Nemani performed his first bone marrow transplant in Sangli after the patient requested it, and it was a success. The patient is now in good health and has two children.

HealthPlix would like to salute doctors like Sandeep Nemani who have gone above and beyond their means and brought healthcare to remote towns and even treated patients free of cost, arranging reports, organising therapy, and advanced technologies.

Dr. Anshul recalls that his in-laws who stay in Gujarat were suffering from serious Covid infection. Due to the rise in demand, nothing was available during that time including oxygen, ICU beds, basic drugs, and services. When he visited them, his in-laws were in bed, suffering from acute hypotension and hypoxemia.

Dr. Anshul Goel explored the entire city for an ICU bed but was unable to locate one. So he decided to construct one himself at home, ordering oxygen and administering basic treatment to his ill in-laws. Since oxygen was in acute shortage, he needed to hunt for it daily and wait in never-ending queues in the scorching heat. Tumbling between home, ICU, and an oxygen plant sapped a lot of his physical stamina but seeing the anguish that people were going through inspired him to put his expertise to good use and save lives. “I started a project to treat and consult people for free – online or over the phone. Ultimately, all of the lives were saved, a seemingly impossible mission finally got over. It all came about as a result of the people’s generous assistance to strangers and outsiders.” shares Dr. Goel.

Volunteering to Save Lives

“When I returned home, I offered to volunteer at any hospital in the state posting on social media. A hospital in Kangra called me to visit since they were unable to find a doctor ready to handle Covid patients. In that facility, I dedicated myself to treating thousands of people. There were no beds available, oxygen availability was short, doctors were not ready to see covid patients. Hospitals were there but with no or very few staff members. I began working in their Covid ICU. Prior to that, death rates were extremely high. It was the longest-serving ICU in any Himachal Pradesh private hospital. It was only when the last patient was discharged that we were able to close it.  Every day, I used to travel from Palampur to Kangra, and served there for 5-6 months”. He continued to provide super-specialist services in the remote and hilly areas of Himachal Pradesh traveling to different areas of the hilly state.

“I’ve been caring for covid patients since I learned how to. I conducted a lot of CMEs educating doctors on how to treat covid. Since doctors from all specialties were required to treat covid patients during the pandemic, I wanted to share my learnings to train these doctors.”

His Inspiration

“When I saw young people die in front of me, I was inspired by the fact that there are few doctors and a large population to serve. My reason for doing so was entirely humanitarian. In the same way that warriors must take the bullet in the battlefield, I believe doctors must take the bullet in this struggle against covid 19.” 

On HealthPlix

“HealthPlix has made my job a lot easier. All my tech-related queries are easily and quickly solved by the team. My patients are using HealthPlix to make appointments with me. It’s a very useful tool that is the need of the hour and it is also offered by HealthPlix on a freemium model, so it’s ideal for doctors in every aspect.” Dr. Anshul Goel has been using HealthPlix since July 23rd, 2021. 

Dr. Anshul Goel is a Kangra-based MD (Medicine) with a Fellowship in Rheumatology. He is a rheumatologist and immunologist. He has been practicing at Karan Hospital in Palampur.

His passion for humanity and the leadership he has demonstrated during the pandemic is inspiring for us. We are so proud to serve doctors like him.

Dr. Uttiya Brahmachari’s is one such inspiring story. 

Dr. Uttiya works as a consulting physician in Berhampore, in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. He is a HealthPlix Doctor since 2019. 

“Like many other doctors, the Covid-19 pandemic had an equal impact on me and my practice. I was attending almost 30 patients every day in my clinic. The ICU was full, we had 12 beds, all occupied.” Dr. Uttiya says.

“Sometimes, I had to treat patients outside of the ICU.  I made an effort to help the elderly, as the majority of them were in critical condition. We were not only physically exhausted but the staff was emotionally drained as well. In my career, I’ve never encountered a challenge and problem like this. I’ve heard about plagues and breakouts. However, this was a far larger problem. The most difficult task was to keep hope alive and to remain optimistic.”

Talking about his wife, Dr. Uttiya said, “My wife, who works at a nursing home, was interacting with the patients’ families. It was difficult to console people who had lost family members and to see families unable to afford expensive care. It was hard. However, we both did our utmost to assist families in the most effective way possible. We did not surrender. We battled and fought till the end.”

Setting Up a Covid Helpline Number for Patients

Dr. Uttiya launched a patient helpline number during the second wave to advise people about bed availability so that patients don’t waste time in finding beds. The situation at the time was so dire that every second counted.  He would inform patients beforehand about the bed’s availability and unavailability, promptly notifying them via the set helpline option. He believed that during such a phase, transparency was crucial.

Managing the Shortage of Oxygen

“Normally, we would obtain oxygen from local vendors, but due to its shortage, we were unable to do so. We began reaching out to everyone we could, including all local suppliers. I recall getting a call at 3:30 a.m. one day when I was sleeping. I came to know that the oxygen supply was running low, with only 2 hours of supply remaining. I had 2 patients on a ventilator and 5 patients on hyperbaric oxygen. During that period, I called everyone I could think of. It was terrifying, but I continued calling until help arrived, and the oxygen supply was restored in less than two hours. It did feel like a God’s miracle at that time.”

His Experience with HealthPlix

Dr. Brahmachari shares, “I’ve been using HealthPlix for more than two years now, and I will never move from it to another platform. It is a great software for physicians. It simplifies, accelerates, and expands the scope of my work.” 

The data storage capability of the HealthPlix EMR is one of my favourites. Many elderly people in the region where I practice show up without any previous prescriptions or medical history. However, HealthPlix has really helped me in storing their data, medications, and other medical information, making follow-up appointments much easier. I am capable of keeping records, and I have been doing so for my chronic disease patients since 2019. Another fantastic feature is the ability to save phone contacts and send automatic SMS. My patients receive consultations and follow-up reminders in this format. So, absolutely, it’s a great doctor-friendly tool to have.”

Dr. Uttiya Brahmachari graduated from the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine with an MD in Tropical Medicine. The Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom awarded him a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes. He is currently working as a consulting physician in Berhampore, West Bengal, in the Murshidabad district.

HealthPlix appreciates Dr. Uttiya Brahmachari for his efforts. His commitment to saving people’s lives encourage the rest of us to do our part to help doctors like him succeed.

Dr. Vijay Bade, a Pune-based occupational health expert who has been a HealthPlix doctor since October 2020, has made it his mission to promote basic first-aid training and various types of health awareness sessions. Since his hospital is located on Alandi Road in Pune, Dr. Vijay often comes across two-wheeler accidents that lead to death. This moved him to take action and create first-aid training programs for people. He noticed that the need of the hour was to train people in saving the lives of those who came under the grasp of such accidents and unforeseen dangers.  

“In situations like these, people often watch, take photographs and videos and share them on social media. We want to reform that state of affairs into something more laudable by empowering employees with life-saving techniques that teach them the value of the golden hour and the criticality of acting quickly and correctly within this window of opportunity”, Dr. Vijay quoted. 

Developing First-Aid Training  

Apart from the common usage of English and Hindi, people in his region mostly comfortably understand Marathi. Realized this, he created training modules in Marathi and other local languages along with Hindi and English. Both online and offline platforms are offered for training purposes. He has teamed up with his wife, Dr. Bhargavi Bade (MBBS, DVD) a Dermatologist and also a HealthPlix doctor for this cause. These trainings are delivered in workplaces and industrial units.

“We’ve aimed to form a team of people with first-aid expertise to help and reach out to those in need. Since 2010, we have trained over 11,000 people and conduct approximately 100 trainings a month. This does not feel like work to me, I feel it’s my duty and my responsibility towards society to provide first-aid training. We have also got approval from the Government of Maharashtra by the Director of Industrial Safety Health as well as an international affiliation of ISO 9001:2015, OSHAS 18001:2007.” 

The First Aid Training is conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Factories Act of 1948, as amended by the Maharashtra Factory Rules of 2012, dated June 5, 2012. He also conducts FORM 07 Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Medical Examinations,

International Medical Examination of Oil and Gas, United Kingdom, Panama and Norwegian Maritime Authorities, Bahamas National Medical Examiner for Director General of Shipping and Civil Aviation, and Director of Industrial Safety Health under his organization Vighanharta Sai Medical Services.

Some of the areas that are covered in their training are: 

•      ABC & CPR of First Aid (Theory & Practical)

•      First Aid for Wounds & Fractures

•      First Aid for Burns & Electric Shock

•      First Aid for Poisoning 

•      First Aid for Snake, Insects & Scorpion bites 

•      First Aid for Epilepsy Fits

•      Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation

•      Cardiac Massage

•      C P R (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) & Recovery Position

•      Various Bandages & Knots for Wounds

•      Bandages & Slings for Various Fractures

In the future, he will continue providing first aid training and plans to conduct Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training, extending his expertise to those going for shipping and civil aviation as well. 

More information about his training and lessons can be found on their website www.drbadevshl.com. 

On A Mission To Save Lives 

Not, just this, Dr. Vijay Bade and his wife Dr. Bhargavi Bade have worked tirelessly to raise awareness in rural areas about rapidly growing ailments such as diabetes, thyroid disease, and osteoporosis among people. They also conduct awareness campaigns on blood and organ donations in Dr. Bade’s Vighanharta Sai Hospital & Laboratory. In the future, Dr. Bhargavi wants to expand ergonomics and industrial psychometric analysis. They want to start behaviour based safety training so that employees learn to use personal protective equipment while undertaking risky activities in industrial settings.

In the past few months, he deployed his hospital as a vaccination centre and gave around 3000 Covid vaccines to people, Influenza vaccines to children and human papilloma vaccines to ladies. 

Dr. Vijay also praised his time as a HealthPlix physician. “HealthPlix proved to be the perfect platform during the Covid era. We found that online consultations were more convenient, and the payment process was swift and secure. People used to be hesitant to come for OPD consultations especially with their kids, but HealthPlix didn’t let healthcare take a back seat. We were able to treat and diagnose patients safely from our home and clinic, providing advice and care to patients in time.”

HealthPlix would like to appreciate Dr. Vijay Bade for his meaningful contributions to the Indian healthcare system.

Dr. Vijay Bade (MBBS, DCH, CPS, BGPN – Boston University) is a paediatrician at Vighanharta Sai Hospital and Laboratory in Pune’s Dighi neighbourhood with 17 years of experience. He earned his Associate Fellowship in Industrial Health from the Directorate General Factory Advice Services and Labour Institute in 2012 and Civil Aviation Induction from the Indian Air Force Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Banglore.

Recalling an incident some 12 years back, when he saw a child of 9 years losing his life to Type 1 diabetes because of misconceptions about the insulin. Type 1 diabetes is a disease mostly occurring in children and requires insulin injections lifelong to survive. Under the influence of a guru promoting alternative treatments for the disease, the child’s family decided to treat the boy with some alternative medicines and stopped the insulin. 

He says “After this incident, we thought we should do something to dispel myths about diabetes in the minds of people. We thought of launching a magazine to provide scientifically correct knowledge about diabetes in simple language which patients can easily understand.” This was the origin of Madhumeh Vani.

Madhumeh Vani is India’s premier Hindi magazine dedicated to providing scientific information about diabetes. It is in the eleventh year of its publication and each issue of Madhumeh Vani addresses the concerns of thousands of regular readers who want more information on this global epidemic. Every issue of Madhumeh Vani focuses on the control of diabetes with an emphasis on improving the quality of life for diabetics. It is available in print as well as on the website http://www.madhumehvani.com.

India is home to 77 million diabetics, the second-highest in the world. One in six people with diabetes in the world is from India, and the numbers are rapidly growing. The International Diabetes Foundation’s Diabetes Atlas projects that over 134 million Indians will be diabetics in the next 25 years.

The Fight Against Diabetes

Dr. Jindal explains, “Diabetes is so big a disease in India that every two out of ten adults living in cities are diabetics. 50% of patients who land up in kidney failure are due to diabetes and 50% of patients who develop heart attack have diabetes as the root cause. Diabetes is the single most important metabolic disease which can affect nearly every organ system in the body. So, we wanted to spread scientifically correct information about this disease to the patients. If we target them with information on the right lifestyle options and dos and don’ts to help keep blood sugar, lipids and blood pressure under control, we can prevent at least a third of people from developing severe complications.”

Dr. Jindal aims at making this magazine a platform for the patients where they ask their queries, doubts and worries regarding their disease. Magazine regularly includes and answers them in their regular publications.

“I started this magazine along with Dr. Subhash Sharma and now Madhumeh Vani has a team of 6 dedicated experts who are undisputed leaders in their fields. It is because of these people that Madhumeh Vani has grown from a simple idea to a regular readership of thousands,” adds Dr. Jindal who is the Chief Editor of the magazine.

Madhumeh Vani has grown into India’s leading Hindi magazine on diabetes. It has 1,13,517 Viewers, 75 Issues, 454 Downloads and 2 Offices. It is entirely funded by the Jindal Health & Help Foundation with contributions from Dr. Sushil Jindal and his family. His foundation also contributes to other philanthropic activities like sponsoring education, nutrition, health and psychological development of parentless children in India. He also distributes the latest issues of Madhumeh Vani free of cost to his patients.

“We also want to help diabetics with other problems that they face. We recently introduced a column to help Type 1 diabetic girls in finding suitable marriage partners. Girls with Type 1 diabetes find it hard to get the right fit for a life partner. So, this column helps them find Type 1 Diabetes boys who are interested in getting married. This initiative has been a success and five to six girls have got married. We’re hoping to get more readership for the magazine so that we can help more patients in the prevention and treatment of diabetes.”

HealthPlix is honoured to be associated with Dr. Sushil Jindal and salutes him for his tireless efforts and contribution to Indian healthcare. 

Dr. Sushil Jindal (MBBS, MD, DM (Endocrinology) is the senior-most Endocrinologist and Diabetologist of Central India, who has been successfully looking after Jindal Diabetes and Hormone Centre in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. He is currently the Professor and Head Department of Endocrinology with PCMS in Bhopal. 

Dr. Jindal has 20 international publications to his credit in addition to two chapters which he has contributed to the RSSDI textbook of Diabetes. He was a member of an editorial board of the prestigious journal ‘BMJ Case Reports’ and Chief Editor of Hindi diabetes education magazine “Madhumeh Vani’ and its website. Dr. Jindal has successfully held the post of Organising Secretary of ESICON 2013, Bhopal. He is a physician to the Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

A big urban-rural gap exists in the healthcare system of our country. While a metropolitan city like Mumbai has more MRI scanners than London, a large percentage of the rural population is unable to read and understand the simplest of sentences, even in their regional language making accurate health delivery a daunting task. Realising this, Dr. Amit Kumar Sinha, an Endocrinologist practising in Patna and a HealthPlix doctor since 2020, has made it his mission to improve health literacy in the rural areas of his state.

He says, “If a patient with diabetes is not able to understand why he/she needs to continue taking his/her medications for at least six months and not eat certain kinds of foods, they are not likely to comply with the doctor’s medical advice. This high dropout rate and incomplete treatment lead to a more severe medical condition and health damages.”

Dr. Sinha has made dedicated efforts towards improving knowledge about rampant diseases like diabetes, thyroid and osteoporosis in the countryside.

“It is very important to spread awareness about diseases in villages. I make devoted visits to villages in my state and take public sessions to inform people about health conditions. People living in towns still have some level of awareness about these issues but it is especially difficult for people from the villages to understand these disorders. It has not been easy. When I started, only a few people used to show up but gradually, I saw more than 100 people joining in the sessions, including the local medical practitioners. My sessions were aimed at informing the villagers about these diseases in simple language and training the local medical practitioners on how to treat patients in the village and avoid common mistakes.”

Healthcare in villages works differently. Rather than visiting a physician, most people will discuss their health problems with their family members. Unmarried women seek advice from their mothers, elder sisters, or married women in the neighbourhood; married women will discuss their health problems with other women in the village and most often try a home remedy or will see a local indigenous medical practitioner (RMP) rather than go to a medical centre. It is only when their problem gets worse that they seek a doctor. “So, more efforts like these will help us mobilise their communities to achieve better sanitation and hygiene, family planning, women and child nutrition and better health in rural areas. It is also crucial to bring health care to those who cannot travel to a primary health care centre and telemedicine is one of the most efficient ways to bring health care to rural villages. Telemedicine platforms like HealthPlix enable for people in remote villages to consult with a doctor by video at minimal costs”, adds Dr. Sinha

“This is where HealthPlix has helped me a lot. I use HealthPlix in both of my clinics, in Patna and Hajipur. In a country like India, it is required that doctors communicate clearly with their patients, using regional languages and familiar vocabulary. HealthPlix EMR has a feature to write regional Rx and the software auto-learns to suggest auto-fill accurately during my consultations. So, the time that used to go in writing Rx manually is now better utilised in discussing health with my patients. Sitting in Patna in Bihar, I am also consulting with patients from literally any city or state in India. I am still available for consultations to my patients who live in Bangalore or Jharkand and that is so gratifying to me. HealthPlix is in my experience one of the best EMRs in India.”

As we have seen even more prominently in the pandemic, low health literacy is a threat to the health and well-being of Indians and the Indian healthcare system. But, all is not dull and doom. There are some outstanding stories like that of Dr. Amit Kumar Sinha that serve as a beacon of hope for our nation. HealthPlix appreciates his efforts and feels honoured to have doctors like him in our doctor community. 

Dr. Amit Kumar Sinha (MBBS, MD, FEDM, CDE, AACE (USA) is a trusted Endocrinologist in Patna, Bihar with experience of 15 years. He is a HealthPlix doctor since October 2020.

Setting an example of social welfare, Dr. Jagadish Surannavar, an Orthopedic Surgeon in Karnataka, is aiding the poor who cannot afford orthopaedic surgeries. Dr. Surannavar, backed with 7 years of professional practice as a surgeon, has been conducting joint replacement and arthroscopy surgeries in Belgaum, Karnataka for free.

“Out of all the surgeries that I do, 50% of people are below the poverty line. So, I do surgeries free of cost for such patients in my region. I have been consulting with patients at the KLE Centenary Charitable Hospital in my city and doing free surgeries for the needy for the last 4 to 5 years.”

Dr. Surannvar started doing this more actively, shortly after the pandemic struck last year. Garbed in a surgical gown and armed with incision instruments, he performs 2 to 3 surgeries every month for his poverty-stricken patients. This has become one of his many medical missions. 

His primary patients are those suffering from sports injury to the shoulder or who need a knee replacement and have no money to spend on surgery. 

“Joint replacement surgeries and arthroscopy are expensive. People in rural areas don’t have money, and their situation has worsened post-covid. They cannot afford treatments at big speciality hospitals. I want to make healthcare affordable and facilitate treatments for them under Ayushman Bharat Yojana. So, I and my team provide them with the same quality of treatment at an affordable cost and treat the ones who are not in the state to afford any treatment at all, for free. We also conduct health camps regularly.” He has done up to 200 free surgeries to date. Among his patients are older people who are mostly treated for knee replacements and some younger ones who need to go through arthroscopy for severe sports injuries. He has done 500 joint replacement surgeries and 4000 successful knee & shoulder arthroscopies till now. He has operated on many national players who are comfortably continuing their sports and visits various orthopaedic centres in North Karnataka and South Maharashtra to perform arthroscopy surgeries.

PASSION TO SERVE 

Dr. Jagadish Surannavar says his passion to serve the less fortunate is inspired by his parents and mentors in medical school. He has always felt an inner calling to help the poor and serve the community.

Without enough money for surgery, many people with these injuries and problems wouldn’t be able to walk and will remain in pain life-long. Inability to walk would also make them dependent on somebody else for carrying out routine tasks. After successful surgeries, they continue to live dignified and physically fit life. “They have to be treated so that they can walk again and lead a normal life,” he said.

Dr. Surannvar hasn’t partnered with any NGO or organization for making this happen. He provides these services on his own, with help from his team at his clinic. He is a HealthPlix doctor since September 2020. He adds “HealthPlix is a great EMR for online and offline consultations. It is easy to maintain patient records in it and the software design is very doctor friendly.”

HealthPlix salutes Dr. Jagadish Surannavar’s passion to serve the community and appreciates his extraordinary efforts.

Dr. Jagadish Surannavar (MBBS, MS Ortho, FAMS) is a joint replacement surgeon and sports injury specialist practising in Belgaum, Karnataka.