SHARP NGO and Robertson Technologies Press Release

Press Release

SHARP NGO has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Robertson Technologies to jointly develop an integrated support system for users of the program, integrating the current SHARP assessment program with the NxOpinion software application. Under the arrangement, SHARP NGO shall have the right to install and use the software at any of its locations of operation and assessment across India. This joint venture will provide advanced clinical decision support software that will not only improve the quality of the health care of school children but would also help spread the school health services to even remote areas across India. The School Health Educators of SHARP NGO would be entitled to utilize the software for diagnostic decision support to screen in areas where the availability of doctors is difficult to obtain.

School Health Monitoring Program is a programme which has been developed by SHARP NGO and Robertson Institute to digitalize school children’s health records of school children In India. The Technology Enabled School Health Educators (TESHE) will be trained to take basic height, weight measurement, vision testing and also to diagnose common signs and symptoms of various childhood diseases with the help of specially designed software. The health data will be used to make a portable electronic school health record and school health analysis which will help the PHC doctor to treat the students who require the treatment. The unique feature of the programme is that the data is then made available through internet, the data will be accessible to govt, doctors of health deptt, education deptt, epidemiologist and bio statisticians who can draw out many useful conclusions which can be used to make many vital school health policies.

“With increasing health care complexity over time, the program was launched with the visions focusing on increasing quality and clinical efficiency, and delivering services in an organized, efficient, and cost-effective manner. In spite of SHARP assessment model being very affordable, its  accessibility to  school children studying in remote rural areas was restricted due to non- availability of doctors in  rural areas for school health check-ups. So, Nxopinion is an ideal solution for us. The NxOpinion application will provide the advantage to school health care practitioners to have access to quick, accurate diagnostic information right at their fingertips. It will not only enhance the school health delivery system but will also help us to cover schools in remote rural areas with the help of our trained school health educators. Nx opinion would provide these educators with necessary training and infrastructure support.” said Dr. Puran Prakash, General Secretary  of the SHARP NGO.

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School Health Annual Report Programme (SHARP) is a non-govt. organization (NGO) with scientifically planned health programme for school children, professionally managed under the guidance of eminent medical experts, sociologists, educationist, psychologists, nutritional specialists and others who have vision of promoting healthcare of children throughout the third world countries. The programme is unique in being the first programme to computerise and place health records of millions of children on the internet in year 1999.  The program is pioneer in the field of school health in India and has the largest school health network across the country. The programme’s innovative approach has made it the most popular school health programme amongst schools with millions of children taking benefit out of it through its various projects.

NxOpinion (pronounced next opinion), an entity of Robertson Technologies, Saginaw, Michigan, USA  is a software that provides diagnostic decision support, electronic health records as well as monitoring and evaluation.  It is the only product on the market that is capable of doing all of these functions and many more. NxOpinion is a software suite designed by and for healthcare workers, primary care providers, and physicians to provide multiple easy to use features that can meet the needs of basic healthcare in the rural areas of the world as well as state of the art hospitals and medical schools.   The current version 3.0 became available on January 15, 2008 after more than three years in development, which included extensive testing, independent research validation studies and pilot studies in India, Africa and the Dominican Republic.  It provides a medical knowledge database with 500 diagnosable diseases and is capable of being regionalized to specific conditions that rural health workers could recognize and treat.Versions 4.0 and 5.0, currently in development, will accommodate user needs based on agreements and be geared for the physician and medical student market with the ability to add labs values, web-based patient data entry from the physicians office practice and interaction with personal health records controlled by the physician.

For additional information please contact: 

Ms Menaka Sharma at  menaka@schoolindia.org  or

Ms Priya Durai at priya@schoolidia.org