Friends, family join hands with aerospace engineer to launch rural health platform

Mangaluru: An aerospace engineer turned farmer and educator Ashwin Shetty in collaboration with clinical psychologist Shraddha L Rai has launched AarogyaPlus, a health platform to serve people in remote villages. They have connected with 15 doctors from their family and among friends, to serve rural folk via a telemedicine platform.
Ashwin Shetty said, “We launched the platform during the lockdown due to Covid-19, when getting medical aid in villages was a challenge. Currently, we have launched six centres in Dakshina Kannada, Tumakuru, and Hassan, and every centre has a full-time nurse, and the patients do not have to pay for the consultation. We are targeting remote villages with a population of less than 5,000, and lacking basic facilities. We have been successfully running this platform for the past 1.5 years, and are now planning to take it to the next level,” he said.
The first centre was set up at Panja, and as the word spread we went on expanding. So far, about 2,500 patients have used the facility, and the lives of about 35 critical patients have been saved.
The next project will be at a diagnostic centre in Kadaba. “We aspire to serve the remotest villages, that do not even have a pharmacy. We are also trying to tie up with hospitals in the city. This is an attempt to ensure that there is no delay in treatment. We also have doctors in the panel, who are working abroad,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shetty has taken up several innovative projects in villages. At Savanoor, he has launched spoken English classes for the youth, and has also launched a Toastmasters Club in Sullia. Though the aim is to attract youth, we are getting more retired persons to the club. As the administrator of the Vidyarashmi group of Institutions, he keeps his office open on Sundays for interested rural youth to learn basic computer skills. “I wish that the youth fine-tune their skills, so that they are industry ready, and confident to face interviews,” Shetty added.