AAPI Bihar

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India, entered an agreement with the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, an organization based in the United States of America for the AAPI pilot project in Primary Health Care in the state of Bihar - the initiative towards health in rural Bihar. AAPI is led by a team of enthusiasts collectively dubbed 'Lead AAPI', which also includes Dr Rashmi Singh, Professor and HOD of Community Medicine, PMCH. The project started on in 27/7/2008 from Nadiyawan village in Phulwarisharif project area. The Head Office and Data Centre was set up at the Department of Community Medicine, PMCH. Regular visits were made by the team to the project area for screening, evaluation and intervention.

Key activities

Collection & analysis of data
Screening of the entire target population for Diabetes, Heart disease, Carcinoma Cervix, Carcinoma prostate, Deafness in children.
Intervention in Early stage in positively detected cases etc.

Salient Features

An indegenous software was also developed in JAVA and MS-Access for database management and data analysis by the department in which Dr Ranjeet Kumar Sinha supervised technical details.
Using the highly efficient software, each person was allotted a unique ID as per his/her block, village, household etc.
The programmes were colour-coded, so that the workflow is extremely systematic
The software generated results and data ideal for population studies and which can be subjected to statistical analysis using software like SPSS.
Thus, preliminary results of a part of the project coverage were discussed in the national IAPSMCON-2010.
The research from this project has been published in South East Asia Journal of Public Health (Vol 1, Issue 1, Jul-Dec 2011), Click here to access). It also gained a place on the website of the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh
An exhaustive database has been prepared.

The official project period concluded in July 2011, but since an extension was granted for one year, and team AAPI resumed its work with camps and peripheral service. Another extension for 3 years was granted in September 2012. The data is now being analysed.

The committee - HODs and faculty members of the AAPI-BIHAR Rural Health Project Team at Patna Medical College

The First AAPI presentation by Dr Ranjeet

Prof Dr Rashmi Singh, on the "How To..." of AAPI-Bihar

Rigorous Discussion to set targets and strategy

Inauguration

The 27th of August 2008 was a significant day in the history of Patna Medical College's outreach programmes for public health in Bihar. The international collaboration project AAPI-Bihar health initiative was inaugurated in Phulwarisharif area of Patna district, Bihar.

Health Minister Mr Nand Kishore Yadav with the members of the AAPI-Bihar PMCH Team; Dr S Balasubramaniam (chief representative from the United States of America), Dr Vijay Prakash, Dr Rashmi Singh, Dr Ranjeet K Sinha and many other people, who are parts of this project, were also present

Field visits were being conducted regularly, and the project witnessed immense popularity in the target population. There had been appreciable cooperation between mobilizers and field workers and the core committee. Adding to that, the findings of parts of the project have brought new realizations in the field of rural public health in Bihar.

Dr S Balasubramaniam of AAPIO speaking at the Inauguration ceremony

Review meeting

The presentation

The presenter

The statistics

The discussion

Field visits

The team of AAPI-Bihar Field with Dr Ulhas Balasubramaniam

Dr Ulhas Balasubramaniam from AAPIO USA, interacting with the villagers attending a camp of the AAPI-BIHAR Health Initiative

Screening for Deafness in Children through the OtoLink

Health Education and Counselling (Dr Madhumita with the villagers)

Collection of Blood Sample

Checking Blood Pressure

Revival meeting

The meeting held on 2 March 2012 was a significant step in the AAPI Bihar health initiative. Since the extension for one year had been granted and associated issues sorted out, Team AAPI planned the new phase of the health initiative. Rigorous discussion was conducted, strategies outlined, major decisions taken, and roles identified to promote rural health in Bihar and health in urban slums in Patna.

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