Over the last year, ARMMAN has grown from an idea and a dream, to a vibrant organization in both India and the US. Yet all of us in the ARMMAN team recognize that our work has only just begun. We hope, through this website and blog, to reach out to those of you who would be willing to lend us a hand with our efforts going forward.
Project HERO is our attempt to help solve a problem that costs lives every day in Indian cities. Every single day, the crowded streets of Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta are the site of road accidents. Every single day, somewhere amongst the teeming millions, a young child will develop a burning fever and find her life in danger. And every day, a wife finds her husband in the midst of cardiac arrest. For all of these people, the only thing that stands between life and death is a bed in a hospital emergency ward, access to modern medical facilities, and doctors who can act quickly. Unfortunately, even in the midst of a sprawling city of millions, and even for the rich, this is often too much to ask for.
This isn’t a post about the problems India has with building enough hospitals for her people and filling them with trained people and functioning equipment. Rather, its about a much more basic need that is left unmet - Information.
We’ve all heard those horror stories. Of running from hospital to hospital only to be told there are no beds available. Of frantically dialling perennially engaged telephone numbers. Of pleading with hassled, overworked medical staff who are unable and unwilling to answer questions. And sometimes there is no happy ending. Just another tragedy: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/infant-dies-of-pneumonia-in-mumbai-parents-blame-hospitals-41802
HERO - the Helpline for Emergency Response Operations - is ARMMAN’s effort to solve the information problem. We want to make sure that simple, important, emergency medical information - the kind of information where the most important cost is time - is made available to everyone. HERO creates a real time database of information meant to answer the first questions people have when a medical emergency occurs.
Which hospitals have emergency ward vacancies and where is the nearest bed? Which blood banks contains the blood type the patient needs?
While this is only a tiny step forward, it is a step that we believe will save a few lives. So help us. Help us prove this idea works, and turn it into a reality in a city which perhaps needs the help more than anywhere else. Mumbai.
Over the last three months, we have figured out the technology needed, begun product development and have gathered a team that is ready to go. We have won some recognition (Exceptional finalists in the GETTY IMAGES “Award for Good” Competition), got lots of great advice and learned many hard lessons. We have convinced the municipal corporation to let us demonstrate the HERO concept. And we have convinced some of the largest public hospitals in Mumbai, to come on board and be ready to work with us.
But now we need to kick things off, and this is where we need help to raise the money needed to turn this idea to something real. It’s time to convince you. Because its quite simple really. We need you, to be a HERO.
Armman Blog
