IIT students develop mobile app to monitor health of heart patients

Students at IIT Roorkee have developed a mobile application -- 'Dhadkan' -- for monitoring the health of people suffering from heart ailments and provide them with medical assistance in case of emergency.

The app, developed by Computational Biology group at IIT-Roorkee, can automatically send notification to both the doctor and the patient, in case of any drastic changes in patient's health data indicating the possibility of an imminent heart attack.

"Named 'Dhadkan', this mobile application will be of tremendous benefit to India which has about 10 million patients at risk of heart failure. The app is available for free and no charges are involved to avail the benefits," Deepak Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, who led the group, said.

The mobile application has been designed in collaboration with experts from AIIMS.

Explaining how the app works, Sharma said it collects patient's data (at any desired interval) including blood pressure, heart rate, and weight, and transmits it to the authorised care-giver (a doctor, nurse or paramedic) who is linked to the patient during initial registration.

"It also provides for two-way communication between doctors and patients. In addition, patients can send ECG report(s) to the doctor (if needed). The app not only eliminates the need for manual monitoring of each patient by the doctor but also helps them in proactively recommending precautionary action during the treatment period," he said.