Project Lead(s): Vishal Marwah
Issue
The importance of primary care and family medicine has been articulated in many international reports, charters and manifestos.
However, few healthcare systems in developing countries have been successful in integrating these principles into the mainstream of their healthcare systems.
Solution
Implemented in India, the project involved development of ‘Vishwas’ – a model of physician leadership that places family physicians in the heart of communities.
Vishwas was conceived to address the declining role of family medicine in India, where patients are increasingly accessing specialists and specialized care.
The first Vishwas Clinic and Community Center was launched in a suburb of Mumbai and offers a wide range of preventive health services for the entire family.
With an emphasis on patient-centric design, the Center provides a comfortable experience to its visitors, and offers a place where one can relax, rejuvenate and refresh the mind, body and spirit.
Outcome
Results showed that the Vishwas model has attracted interest from physicians in India.
At Physician Leadership Workshops held in New Delhi and Ahmedabad to promote the model, eight of 120 doctors in attendance expressed an interest in joining the program.
The Vishwas Android application and prescription support system has now been launched and made fully operational in the clinic.
With an easy-to-use interface and minimal training required, the app allows the physician to collect and store important patient information, create personalized follow-up reminders, view patient history in the form of an interactive timeline and analyze key metrics through a dashboard.
Details of the model have been made available through various presentations at workshops.
Future plans involve sharing lessons learned with the physician community and scaling up the Physician Leadership program across India (targeting 50 doctors in year one, 500 in year two, and 2,500 in year three).