HYDERABAD: A city-based entrepreneur has developed a software to help
Covid-19 patients
find a
hospital
where a
bed
is available instead of running around from one hospital to another in search of a bed.
Arun Varma has developed a comprehensive communication system online which can be used effectively to direct a patient to the hospital where beds are available. “In the system that I have developed, there is complete transparency. All the hospitals — both private and government — will have to specify the total number of beds they have, occupancy at any given time and also mention when a bed has turned vacant,” Arun told TOI.
Arun says when a patient approaches a hospital and there is no availability of a bed, the patient would be directed to another hospital by the software where bed availability is there.
He said he was saddened by several Covid-19 patients having to make rounds to various hospitals and turned away after they were told that they were no beds. “That’s when I had decided that I should come up with a solution.”
He further explained that the enormity of the situation could be understood when hospitals in worst-affected countries like
Italy
started providing beds and treatment on a priority basis only to patients who had a chance of survival.
The 35-year-old mechanical engineer said he would offer the app that he has developed free of cost to the government. “The government authorities can take over the application,” he said.
Arun, who also did a course in entrepreneurship from IIM, Bengaluru, founded Syncrooms six years ago which was used by the hotel industry to identify availability of rooms across the country. The information pertained to 3,400 hotel rooms across the country.
“I got a feeling that something was surely not going right in February itself. Covid-19 had affected the travel industry badly,” he said.
Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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