Breast Cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. In addition to the burden of mortality and morbidity, Breast Cancer treatment cost and expenditure comprises a major chunk of the catastrophic health expenditure and financial burden incurred by the population. Delayed hospital presentation and diagnosis augments the hardships faced by individuals, family, community, and the health system at large. The need and urgency to create awareness about the disease and enable early detection via community level population-based screening was identified early in 2014. Through the awareness sessions, the program aims to demystify Breast Cancer and break the stigma associated with it. The intervention adopted a screening methodology that was cost effective and combination of Clinical Breast Examination and Mammography was followed. This paper discusses the learnings and outcomes of the surveillance over the years across geographies spreading awareness.
Maternal mortality rate (MMR) has been one of India’s key priority areas. Over the years. several national programs have addressed issues of accessibility and affordability of antenatal care. Major gaps in the system include shortage of trained human resource and technological infrastructure in providing essential diagnostic ante-natal care. High risk pregnancies (HRP) owing to various factors, account for 70-80% of maternal deaths. This case study describes the clinical and workflow process innovation in ante-natal care in Shorapur taluka, a rural region of Northern Karnataka. Maternal obstetric monitoring (MOM) through a defined protocol for high-risk pregnancy identification aided by ultrasound scans, was introduced at the sub-district hospital. In parallel, system strengthening was done through capacity building activities, installation of blood storage unit and provision of ultrasound services. The model demonstrates that process and technological innovations can be leveraged on to facilitate and make available specialist medical services in rural areas, which is key to identification and timely management of high-risk pregnancies.
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