Transforming Dhawa's Health Post
Monday, March 10, 2014 at 10:01AM 
Improvements Works at the Health Post are complete, and the celabratory ceremony over.
Among others, the region's Medical Superintendent showed up, along with the Head Doctor for Arunghat and all 8 of Dhawa’s volunteer health professionals.
Several speeches were made, including one by me where I attempted to speak Nepali, and even with a script, I’m pretty sure it was unintelligible! But it was well received and made a lot of people laugh.
But whats it all about?
Well, on a couple of occasions we've noticed in Dhawa that sometimes medicines for symptoms, rather than the root cause, were being treated. So we began to think there must be some way we can help, and in no time at all, Dhawa.net found itself spreading in a new direction..
The aim: Overcome the isolation of the Dhawa Health Post, and the lack of support network, by providing 21st century services, with the internet at its core.
After that, the pieces fell into place by themselves.
With help of Nek (Learning Planet’s Renewable Energy Lead) who was visiting from Greece, we quickly had the power supply sorted – solar power with 4 days redundancy to keep even the most persistent of monsoons at bay. Following this, kit for Dhawa.net was installed.
But what really put wind in our sail was when my application to DXplain was successful.
Considered to be the foremost Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) in the world, and jointly developed by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, this was a serious win for the project, and for Dhawa.
But the icing on the cake was finding Sabin Thapaliya, a fully qualified doctor willing to give his time and participate in a Telemedicine programme. Better than that; not only is he willing, he is also extremely bright, capable and motivated. Exactly what we were looking for.
In summary: We've taken the Dhawa Village Development Community Health Post from an isolated building with deficient services to a modern complex that boasts Uninterruptable Power, 24/7 high speed internet, world leading diagnosis software, and a Telemedicine connection to a doctor in Kathmandu - talk about transformational change!
It's catapulted the Health Post into the 21st century and given the community the tools they need, to improve healthcare in their community.
But the potential of this work goes far beyond Learning Planet’s involvement, and with Sabin there I know this potential will be realised.
I couldn't be happier.
